Click on the Infographic to see larger version. ANGIE LEVINE
Nancy Mikacenic looks forward to helping her new
team.
By Michelle Coppolella
Daily Bruin Reporter
Large, liberal public university vs. small, private Catholic
university. Royce Hall vs. the Dome. The Bruin vs. the Leprechaun.
Westwood vs. South Bend. Warm, sunny, too-beautiful-to-go-to-class
beach days vs. below-freezing, snowed-in, can’t-feel-my-limbs
days.
UCLA junior midfielder Nancy Mikacenic knows more than anyone
what polar opposites Notre Dame and UCLA are. Yet oddly enough, a
similarity between the two is what first drew Mikacenic to Notre
Dame and then to UCLA: a successful women’s soccer
program.
But in 1998 when she was a hot prospect for colleges nationwide,
UCLA wasn’t one of the top three teams in the nation as it is
today.
Notre Dame was.
“Notre Dame’s soccer program was very, very
good,” Mikacenic said. “I wanted to go to a team where
we had the opportunity to win a national championship.”
And in 1999, Notre Dame fell just short of capturing that
national championship, falling to North Carolina 2-0 in the finals.
But despite Notre Dame’s success on the field, Mikacenic
struggled to adapt to a soccer mentality she had never before
encountered.
“At Notre Dame, I felt like every single practice was a
tryout,” she said. “So many players didn’t play
to their full potential because they were worried about the
repercussions.”
While Notre Dame soccer players worried about making bad passes,
Mikacenic continued to worry whether she had made the correct
decision in choosing Notre Dame.
“I signed before I knew who the coach was going to
be,” Mikacenic said. “It wasn’t that he was a bad
coach. He just wasn’t the right fit for me.”
When playing collegiate level soccer, having a coach that fits
like a glove is essential ““ and that’s where UCLA head
coach Jillian Ellis fits into the picture.
“There’s something in Jill’s coaching style
where every single player on the field plays with confidence at
every practice,” Mikacenic said. “No one makes a bad
pass because they’re not nervous, and that’s huge
““ to have all your players at their full
potential.”
And it was then that Mikacenic decided to utilize her full
potential. After playing in almost every game for the Fighting
Irish since her freshman year, she said goodbye to the snowy
streets of South Bend and took a breath of fresh air as she entered
the gold-paved streets of Westwood.
“The transition was so easy because there’s so many
things to do here,” she said. “The first day I was here
I went walking around Westwood, and at that moment I knew I made
the right decision.”
But despite the discovery of 25 cent cookies at Diddy Riese and
two Starbucks within walking distance of one another, what
impressed Mikacenic the most was the action occurring on the
field.
“After our first scrimmage, I thought we were better than
any college team that I had ever played for or against,” she
said. “The work ethic is out of this world, and I think it
comes from Jill (Ellis).
“I think she sets a standard for every player. Whether you
play or not, you work extremely hard, and I think that’s why
the program is where it is right now.”
While Mikacenic reveled in the astonishing team coordination the
Bruin squad demonstrated, her strong individual characteristics
served as just another link in the chain of UCLA soccer
greatness.
“She leads by example, by voice, by action, and I think
she sets a new standard for our team,” roommate and teammate
Nandi Pryce said. “That in itself is amazing and not
something a lot of people can bring to a team. She has it in her to
be a champion.”
Unfortunately, the champion in Mikacenic would have to be
contained. Two weeks before UCLA started its preseason for the
2001-2002 season, she re-injured her right quadriceps, which had
been a chronic injury ever since she started playing for the Irish
two years prior.
“In a way, it almost allowed me to step back and look at
the style of play we had on the team,” Mikacenic said.
“I got to know people in a different way because I
wasn’t playing with them, so in that sense it was
valuable.”
UCLA hopes to draw from Mikacenic’s down time as she will
step onto the field for the first time as a Bruin Friday against
Loyola Marymount.
“She’s a veteran player with two Final Four’s
already, and I think she has the ability to be a starter for
us,” Ellis said. “If we can have her hitting her stride
by Pac-10s, I’d be really pleased because we can go into the
playoffs at full strength.”