Bruins Are as Solid as Oakes

For someone who plays along the back line for the UCLA women’s soccer team, Jill Oakes shudders to think where she might be without her goals.

Win a national title. Qualify for the national team and play in the Olympics and the Women’s World Cup.

The words were typed in an e-mail her freshman year at the behest of Bruin Coach Jillian Ellis, who wanted the young defender to realize how good she could be if she were willing to work to maximize her potential.

“She had a lot of natural ability, but I think to that point a lot had come easy for her,” Ellis said. “I said, ‘Jill, if you really want to climb the ladder of the national-team programs, you really have to want it.’ ”

Oakes is on the verge of realizing her first objective. The senior captain is the central component of a UCLA defense that has shut out all four opponents in the NCAA tournament to propel the Bruins into the College Cup for the third consecutive year.

UCLA (21-1-2) plays Florida State (20-3-1) at 4:30 PST today in a national semifinal at College Station, Texas. The winner meets Penn State (23-0-1) or Portland (22-0-1), which play in the other semifinal, at 10 a.m. PST Sunday in the championship game.

“I guess this is my chance now to get that taken care of and crossed off the list,” Oakes said of a national title.

The Bruins might not be in position to win their first national championship had Ellis not used Oakes’ words to push her back from a knee injury suffered late in her freshman year.

“I think I brought out [a copy of the e-mail] when she was rehabbing and said, ‘This is what you committed to and this is part of the process,’ ” Ellis said. “I think it made her suddenly go, ‘Yeah, I wrote that.’ ”

Said Oakes: “I questioned whether I was going to be good enough to play again, let alone play at the national level or lead the Bruins. I had to search deep down and find out whether I had the drive to push through the adversity and the struggle.”

After spending much of her sophomore and junior seasons regaining top form, Oakes has been nothing short of spectacular this year while earning first-team All-Pacific 10 Conference honors. Oakes and Bruin forward Iris Mora are among 15 semifinalists for the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy, given to the national player of the year.

UCLA’s defense has given up only eight goals in 24 matches and could break the school record of 10 given up in 2000. The Bruins have already set season records for consecutive games unbeaten (19), shutouts (17) and victories.

“I can’t say I’m the only one back there holding things down, but I do take incredible pride in the defense,” Oakes said.

Oakes realizes that her final college season will be considered incomplete without a championship. The Bruins reached the title game last year for the second time before falling to Notre Dame on penalty kicks.

“Once the game has to be determined by penalty kicks, it’s kind of a coin toss,” Oakes said. “It was an eye-opening experience how you can leave it all out there but sometimes it’s just not going to go your way.”

Once Oakes completes her college career, she hopes to resume playing with the women’s national team, with which she made her debut last spring. Then she can start checking off the other goals on her list.