With her team heavily favored entering its second straight NCAA quarterfinal, Jillian Ellis needed some advice.
Naturally, she turned to a wise man. A very wise man.
How should her team deal with the pressure, she wondered. How could it still focus with a bear-sized target on its back?
“My dear, you wouldn’t want it any other way”, the wise man told her.
And with that, John Wooden wished the third-seeded UCLA women’s soccer team the best of luck in its quarterfinal match against Florida.
Never mind that the Bruins lost despite outplaying the Gators for much of the game. The very fact that the Florida win was considered an upset served as a striking sign that UCLA soccer had arrived.
Now as Ellis enters her fourth season at UCLA, she has embraced Wooden’s remarks.
“It’s true,’’ said Ellis, 58-13-2 (not including the games over the weekend) in her three-plus years at UCLA. “You really do want to be the team.’’
UCLA shouldn’t have any trouble fulfilling that role. Ellis responded to losing seven starters by bringing in the No. 2-ranked recruiting class in the country.
It has become a recurring theme for the former Under-21 U.S. national team coach. Finally, the Bruins can reload instead of rebuild, something that prized recruit of 2000 and now junior midfielder Sarah-Gayle Swanson values.
“They’re all so talented,’’ said Swanson of the freshmen. “Everyone is on the same page, and the competition is so skillful that you get better every time you step on the field.’’
So attractive has the UCLA name become that Jill Oakes, the top-ranked recruit in the country, joins four other players ranked in the top 25 by Soccer America in trying to keep the bar as high as it has been in previous years with more experienced players.
So far-reaching has the UCLA name become that forward Iris Mora came from Cancun to play in Westwood.
Like Ellis before she came to UCLA, freshman forward Katie Rivera, the No. 21-ranked recruit in the nation, saw everything else the school had to offer.
“First, the soccer is awesome,’’ Rivera said. “Also, UCLA has great academics, there’s a lot to do around here, and the team seemed really nice.”
Ellis says that the national exposure of two years ago, when the Bruins reached the national championship game, coupled with her approach to coaching, has greatly assisted in the recruiting process.
“We’re at a point now where the best kids in the country are coming here,’’ Ellis said. “I think I’m a players’ coach in the sense that I try and think like a player would and ask what would motivate me as a player.”
Still, there is more to do. The Bruins took home their third Pac-10 title in program history last season but couldn’t get back into the Final Four.
“These last two years have helped us get recognized, but at the same time we haven’t won a championship,” Swanson said.
And then there’s Oct. 4. It’s hard to have a conversation with a Bruin player without hearing about how important it is that the team beat defending champion Santa Clara. UCLA still has yet to score a goal on the Broncos in 270 minutes of play. In many ways, UCLA players won’t feel like they have arrived until the team can beat Santa Clara.
With the majority of the freshmen more accustomed to offense, Ellis asked senior Tracey Winzen to move to the back line, where she and junior Nandi Pryce will anchor a new-look Bruin defense.
“It’ll be a slightly different-looking team this year,” Ellis said.
“We’re still going to possess, but probably play out of the back with four rather than three.”
Thus far, the new Bruins have come up with mixed results. At the second UCLA Women’s Cup, they defeated then-No. 5 Virginia on a golden goal by freshman Kim Devine but lost to then-No. 12 Penn State 1-0 in double overtime two days later.
Ellis has again drawn up an impressively challenging slate of games for her squad, including a Sept. 28 tussle with the Mexican National Team at Drake Stadium.
Everyone will be gunning for her team, and it might not always be easy.
But, she wouldn’t want it any other way.
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