Ah Crud. Final: UCLA 3, Pilots 2 in 2OT

Congrats to the women for another great season....

It was a fantastic season by any standard. Keeping in mind we lost some key players early...even more impressive. We'll just reload and go after it again next year! Although there's always a tinge of sadness that we're losing another great group of seniors.

I've never been a UCLA fan, so it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they remained the Buffalo Bills of the College Cup. But, they sure look as good as their #1 ranking.

Wow. That game completely lived up to the hype. It was an incredible match up and extremely entertaining to watch. It might be one of the top performances to remember from a UP goalkeeper. I will be putting the goals on YouTube shortly, followed by the saves because they were just that great.

while you are at it, put enyeart getting taken down in the box The world needs to see that.

The one in OT? Yeah, that was BS.

I will. I was in the middle of texting a few people who couldn't watch the game that scenario when we scored. I think it was literally something like "OMG, the ref may have just blown a UP pena GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL!!!! Wozzie!!!"

The people who texted me back were like, "Um, what happened again?"

and make sure the ref's name is on the title - Jesse Johnson

Geezer, I just read the chat archive where you said "there's gotta be something wrong with MacMillan hugging their goalscorer" (or something like that), and I laughed because I said something similar to the person I was reporting to over the phone. But perhaps with some more colorful adjectives and verbally a little different--I don't think the filters here will come close to accepting what I said. Haha.

But not really.

I thought I caught this at the bar when I was leaving and just confirmed it as I was uploading the video to YouTube...did anyone else find a little bit of solace and humor in the fact that Val Henderson, the UCLA goalkeeper, got a bloody nose in her initial celebration with Danesha Adams? Gah, that's the only thing I was remotely chuckling about as I was driving home.

Geezer, I just read the chat archive where you said "there's gotta be something wrong with MacMillan hugging their goalscorer"

yeah, it was odd to watch that--I dunno--it was just wierd.

Video of goals is almost done uploading to YouTube. The saves may have to wait until tomorrow, as I have to be up and out of the house quite early tomorrow. It's taken me nearly two hours to format, edit, (with a special slow-mo of the Enyeart foul for Geezer), re-format and upload to YouTube, and that's because I know about what time the goals occurred. The saves I will have to be a little more meticulous in watching for as I edit.

The link will be posted in about 15 minutes.

What a battle!!! The momentum swings were intense!!! I watched the game at Buckley. Great, supportive crowd. Fantastic atmosphere...despite the loss!

Yes...special thanks to Kelsey for playing her heart out! She kept us in the game. Many of the Bruin shots were wicked! I'd like
to see the team be more physical in the defensive-end next year. It just seemed that in tonight's loss, we allowed UCLA a lot of unchallenged runs...in and around the box. I'm hesistant to describe it as a "prevent defense"...like in in football...but boy...I was surprised at how much space was allowed to the Bruin fowards and midfielders. Wasn't our defense a little to flexible? Too much cushion. A lot of the times, I was asking myself..."Can someone please put a body on someone when they get close and in-range?" Kelsey shouldn't have seen as many brutal shots as she did tonight. They were bullets! That just screams they've been given too much free space...to get their shots off with such velocity!

Aw heck! I just hugged my daughter to console her after the game. She broke down. Cried. Very emotional loss. But I told her
she has to be very proud of the team and its accomplishments. UCLA was just tougher and took it to us. Have to repect that. We
got beat by a strong team.

Special thanks to the Seniors for 4 wonderful years of soccer! You've certainly made it a beautiful game to watch. Loved every minute of it. We'll miss you at Merlo/Clive Charles!

GO PILOTS!!!

For those of us that didn't get to watch the game, what did FUCLA do at halftime to seemingly dominate us in the second half and overtime.

It sounded like we were on our heels that whole time. I am just curious what they did to so completely change the game.

Sorry to see it all end, especially for this incredible group of seniors. We have been treated to some very special efforts and beautiful soccer by these young ladies. Thank you for all that you do.

HRZag...that's the only thing that disappointed me. We lost all momentum in the second half until the very end when Wozzie scored the equalizer. That swing carried through the first overtime, but the second had us back on our heels.

I wasn't sure what completely changed things either, other than UCLA really pushing forward and putting pressure in the midfield and on their offensive third of the field.

HRZag - Good question! I watched the game on T.V. and all I can say is UCLA came out after halftime with a completely different mentality. In the first half, they were tough, quick and solid.

I think they were caught off guard by Enyeart's first half goal and it was at that point that we ramped it up and could have gone up 2-0. We put tremendous pressure on them late in the first half, and their goalkeeper, Val Henderson, did a heck of a job keeping us from getting that 2nd goal. Things looked good at halftime, as we seemed like we just might be the better team.

But UCLA is not Denver, Colorado or Tennessee. Their coach, said in a halftime interview that she wasn't happy with her team's play and she challenged them to just be themselves; to show their true personality. Well - suffice to say UCLA responded BIG-TIME to their coach's challenge. They simply ramped up several notches and we did not quite have the speed, quickness or depth to stay with them. Read GUPhantom's post right before your own. It's right on.

Sorry guys and gals, but blown ref calls or not, we were simply beaten by a better, more talented and much deeper team. Yes, our season-ending injuries to the Rapinoes, Megan Sweeney and Korie Nicholson hurt our depth.

We have one healthy player with the ability to rocket the ball past the defense at any given moment: Michelle Enyeart. (Angie can do it, but not regularly. Kelli Croncrite has a monster shot, but being a central defender doesn't give her too many opportunies). If Megan Rapinoe was healthy, she would join Michelle and we would have two players with on the money rockets at any given moment. And Rachael Rapinoe is a whirling dervish that would have penetrated the Bruins defense and created either goals or great opportunities for other teammates.

However ------ if these players were all healthy at the start of the season, and Sophie and Steph didn't have to miss any games due to national team commitments, would Sophie have ever played up top? Would Elli, Jessica and Keelin played the minutes they did and grown so well with all that prime-time experience? Who would have come off the bench? (ETC., ETC.,ETC.). Who really knows? No One! All speculation.

UCLA in the second half and second overtime, in particular, dominated possession as we normally do. They have several players with rocket, on target, shots. They have players that can head the ball at the GK with accuracy. Really, I thought that Kelsey saved us considerable embarrassment with all her second half heroics. It easily could have been 3 or 4-1 when the ref blew the PK foul on Michelle late in the game and then Wozzie scored shortly afterward. It would have been moot at that point.

I agree with Phantom's post wholeheartedly three posts before this. Go back and read his post. Where was our defense in the second half and O.T.? We have one of the best defenses in the country. No one disputes that fact. We just got schooled by a better team, in my opinion. And if you want the Quarterfinal at Merlo, you can't lose 3 non-conference games. Yes, I realize we were in survival mode with injuries and World Cup players missing, but the 2005 team got to play the Quarters at Merlo against Notre Dame. NO non-conference losses. Yes, the NCAA selection committee treats us unfairly. Bottom line, best team finds a way to win the BIG, MUST-WIN matches. The best team won last night. But that said, I believe we are the second best team in the country. Not bad! We can and will build from that.

Great programs are patient. Great programs are consistent. Great programs improve their recruiting classes every year. Great programs work year-round to improve and condition their returning players.

We are a great program!!! And I LOVE THE PILOTS, UNCONDITIONALLY, FOREVER!!!