ED RHEE Freshman Sarah-Gayle Swanson
(right) pushes up the field in a game last week. The team is
currently ranked No. 3 in the nation.
By Eli Karon
Daily Bruin Contributor
These are the games coaches dread. An underdog opponent coming
off its first conference win, playing host to a national powerhouse
team fresh off its first loss of the season.
This weekend the No. 3 UCLA women’s soccer team travels to
Oregon, where both the Ducks and the Beavers assume the roles of
home team and underdogs, while UCLA takes its usual place as the
heavily-favored national powerhouse.
And while the Bruins have already forgotten the loss suffered in
the Santa Clara game a week ago, the Ducks and Beavers almost
certainly have not.
The University of Oregon (7-5-1, 1-3 Pac-10) is coming fresh off
its first conference win. The victory came in dramatic fashion: a
3-2 sudden death overtime in Tempe, Ariz. against Arizona
State.
Last week, head coach Jillian Ellis said, “We don’t
want to allow any goals. I think our back line is starting to come
together, which is important for us.”
This is not good news for the Oregon schools. Last season the
Bruins beat the Ducks and the Beavers by a combined score of
11-0.
On Friday, the Bruins will look to play much the way they did
the last time they faced the Ducks. Last year in Eugene, UCLA
controlled every aspect of the game, shutting out Oregon 8-0 and
unleashing a school record of 35 shots on goal. The weekend marks
Oregon’s last homestand of the season.
“We are looking to come together as a team,”
sophomore Sarah-Gayle Swanson said. “We are going to
concentrate on one game at a time and play our best for every
minute of the game.”
Despite the Santa Clara loss, UCLA is still chasing history. The
team is on pace to have the best record in the program’s
history. At 12-1 overall (3-0 Pac-10), the Bruins have six matches
left to prove themselves the most successful program in school
history.
“One of our goals this year is to win Pac-10, so we take
every conference game seriously,” assistant coach Lisa
Shattuck said. “We have to come out and play our very best.
We can’t look past these two games.”
On Sunday the Bruins will travel to Corvallis to take on Oregon
State. Last year in Westwood, UCLA shut out the Beavers 3-0 to
extend their winning streak to 11 games. This year, the OSU game
will serve a different purpose ““ helping the Bruins go
undefeated in conference play.
Luckily for UCLA, nobody is overlooking the importance of the
weekend trip.
“Every team wants to beat us. Our team is finally
realizing that every team is not going to be a pushover,”
Shattuck said. “When you are on the top, people want to
bring you down.”