Unless the Bruin football team runs the table, UCLA’s
100th NCAA title rests on the postseason chances of its other fall
sports clubs. But there’s a strong tradition that suggests
one of UCLA’s fall sports will end the suspense and claim
title No. 100. There hasn’t a been a fall title since
men’s water polo won the championship in 2004, which stands
as a bona fide drought in the pressurized winning environment of
Westwood. Entering this week, women’s soccer, men’s
water polo and women’s volleyball are all ranked in the top
five nationally, gearing up for legitimate title runs.
Nana Meriwether ““ Women’s volleyball No. 3 UCLA
faced No. 4 Washington on Thursday in a battle of unbeaten teams,
rife with story lines. The Huskies are the defending national
champions, and were looking to avenge a 2005 upset that delivered
coach Andy Banachowski’s 1000th career win in the most
dramatic of settings. Enter Meriwether, who had 15 kills and a
season-best 15 blocks as UCLA (16-0, 3-0) came from behind to beat
Washington 3-2 on Thursday night at Pauley Pavilion. Meriwether, a
senior middle blocker, transferred from Duke after her freshman
year and has been the central player in UCLA women’s
volleyball’s rebirth. She garnered All-Pac-10 honors in 2005,
and she’s making a strong bid to be an All-American this
season. At the end of nonconference play, Meriwether led the Bruins
in kills per game (4.37) and blocks per game (1.53), and led the
nation with a .571 hitting percentage. If Banachowski is to win his
first title since 1991, Meriwether will be the key.
Logan Powell ““ Men’s water polo Powell, along with
six other redshirt seniors, looks to lead UCLA men’s water
polo after a disappointing fifth-place finish in 2005, short of
qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. As an attacker, Powell is off
to a fast start for the No. 3 Bruins (6-1, 1-0), who scored a 10-8
win over No. 6 Stanford on Saturday. Against No. 11 UC Irvine on
Sept. 22, Powell registered a career-high five goals en route to
UCLA’s 15-4 rout. Aside from his scoring in the regular
season, Powell has proven to be at his best when the championship
hangs in the balance. In the 2004 NCAA Championship game against
Stanford, Powell scored the winning goal with 13 seconds left.
Although it was a defining win for Brett Ormsby, who had finally
moved from the shadow of Stanford’s Tony Acevedo to win
Player of the Year honors, it was Powell who clinched the title.
“Myself, Michael March and Will Didinger are all leaders on
this team,” Powell said. “We know that, and we try and
do the best job of that we can. Obviously, now that we’re
seniors there’s a little more pressure. We’re the ones
who answer for how this team does. “I feel a little bit of
pressure in the pool, but I’m blessed with a deep team and a
talented team, so there’s not really any pressure for me to
score a certain number of goals a game. We have a lot of other guys
on this team who can put the ball in the cage,” Powell
said.
Lauren Cheney ““ Women’s soccer This freshman forward
is the crown jewel of coach Jill Ellis’ latest recruiting
class. Cheney was the consensus No. 1 recruit in the nation, coming
out of Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, Ind.as the 2006
Parade Magazine National High School Player of the Year. Despite
all the accolades, it was unclear how much Ellis would be relying
on Cheney. After three straight trips to the College Cup without a
title, Ellis was returning possibly her most talented roster to
date. But sophomore Kara Lang, a freshman All-American in 2005,
tore her ACL during an offseason practice and is out for the
season. That injury firmly entrenched Cheney in the starting
lineup. It’s safe to say she has responded well. Cheney
scored her team-leading fifth game-winning goal of the season in
the No. 5 Bruins’ 1-0 victory over Gonzaga at Drake Stadium
on Sunday. She has scored the game-winning goal in the last three
UCLA wins. “Having a player like Lauren is a huge threat, and
it’s exciting to see how she’ll develop over her
career,” Ellis said. “But, yeah, to think of how our
roster would have spread out with Kara (and) Lauren … would have
been interesting.”
Eric Reed ““ Men’s soccer Reed is under the pressure
that almost all athletes face at one point: Once you have a
breakthrough performance, what in the world do you do for an
encore? That is the question that Reed, a senior goalie, is trying
to answer. Reed is coming off a season in which he held opponents
to a 0.60 goals against average (sixth in the nation) and led his
league with 12 shutouts. His dominance was surprising, considering
he didn’t even begin the season as the unquestioned starter,
initially sharing duties with Nate Pena until coach Jorge Salcedo
completely entrusted the job to Reed. Reed set a Pac-10 record in
2005 by not allowing a goal at home during the entire regular
season. But this, his follow-up season, is even more critical to
the No. 17 Bruins’ success as the team lost star defender
Marvell Wynne to the Major League Soccer Draft in the offseason and
forward Maxwell Griffin to a torn ACL early this season. UCLA
(6-3-2, 2-1-1) has been winning with its stingy defense for the
past few years and appears likely to follow suit again in 2006.
“I feel that there’s more expected of me as a
senior,” Reed said. “I’m happy to be in a
position to lead after watching how other guys have led this team
in the past. I’m proud to be someone other guys can come to
for leadership,” he said.