ED RHEE Sophomore defender Kathryn Lee strides
past a USC opponent in Sunday’s 2-1 victory over the Trojans.
UCLA 2 USC 1
By Jeff Agase
Daily Bruin Staff
After surrendering an early goal, the UCLA defense survived some
late scares to play nearly 85 minutes of shutout soccer and defeat
USC 2-1 before 1,257 at Drake Stadium.
The win gave the No. 2 ranked Bruins (12-1-0, 3-0-0 Pac-10)
their second victory over their cross-town rivals in less than a
year and restored some confidence after a 3-0 loss Thursday night
at Santa Clara.
“It was perfect that we had USC after the loss,”
UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said. “Our emotions were
naturally high, and it was good to resolve some of our
problems.
“We had done some thinking after the loss. It was a
collective thinking,” Ellis added.
The Women of Troy (7-4-1, 2-1-0) nearly kept the Bruins in their
Thursday tailspin when they caught the Bruins napping in the sixth
minute.
USC senior forward Brittany Savelkoul took a feeder pass and ran
past three Bruin defenders, who thought Savelkoul was offside.
Unfortunately for UCLA, goalkeeper CiCi Peterson was under the same
impression and stood frozen as USC took the lead.
Savelkoul’s goal was the fourth scored on the Bruin
defense in two games. But the UCLA offense, which was dormant
Thursday night in the loss to Santa Clara, tied the match less than
10 minutes later.
Senior forward Staci Duncan, who has stepped in up front to
replace injured sophomore Lindsay Greco, split the USC defense and
looped a ball over goalkeeper Shaelyn Fernandes. The shot took
about five seconds to finally bounce past the goal line, but the
Southern Cal back line was too far back to stop the imminent
score.
The Bruins went on to control possession for the remainder of
the first half, much to the chagrin of USC head coach Jim
Millinder.
“We started out slowly, and were lucky that we
weren’t down two or three goals at halftime,” he said.
“We did things to allow us to get some results in the second
half but not in the first half.”
Indeed, the Women of Troy applied fairly consistent pressure
throughout the second half. In the 49th minute Savelkoul nearly
struck again but was thwarted when Peterson slid to stop the charge
at the top of the box.
UCLA managed only three shots in the second half but scored on
one of its scant chances. Senior Mary-Frances Monroe connected on a
left-footed shot from just inside the box and deposited it by
Fernandes, who seemed to think the shot was headed wide.
“It was kind of a cheap goal,” Monroe said. “I
just trapped it and shot it. I think there were so many defenders
in front of her that she lost track of it.”
Millinder summed things up a little more bluntly.
“Shaelyn misplayed the ball, bottom line,” he
said.
Monroe had to be escorted off the field in the 25th minute after
a collision at midfield but returned 15 minutes later. The goal was
her ninth on the year and puts her one behind team leader and
fellow senior Stephanie Rigamat.
The Bruins have not lost two consecutive games since the 1996
season.