‘They Don’t Mean a Thing If We Don’t Win the Championship’ : Soccer: The records and 16 shutouts will be forgotten if UCSD returns without the Division III women’s title.

Above the fireplace in their campus apartment hang two cardboard posters, hardly coveted artwork but pieces that manage to heat up the apartment’s inhabitants faster than the fire below them.

Four UC San Diego women’s soccer teammates live here. The posters are daily reminders of the team’s unity and commitment, which will be tested when the top-ranked Tritons open the NCAA Division III Western Regional playoffs Saturday in St. Paul, Minn.

According to two-time All-American Heather Mauro, the team made a pact when training began in August to abstain from drinking alcohol during October and through playoffs. To seal the promise, they signed a contract that was enlarged and now hangs over the mantle.

“Last year Jen (teammate Jennifer Kingsbury) and I did it,” Mauro said. “This year everyone decided to do it as a symbol of unity. It’s not that we drink that much.”

The other hanging memento is a composite season schedule: “The Road to the National Championship.” On it, USD’s 15-1-1 season--which includes 16 shutouts--is chronicled. Only four blanks--the most post-season games they would play--remain.

“Our one goal is the national championship,” Mauro said. “The shutouts are nice, but the championship, that’s what our only focus has been. We’ve been training hard for three months for this. A lot of us feel our season starts Saturday. Everything else is what got us here.”

Said USDHS graduate Felicia Faro: “The season’s been great, but basically it’s been a warm-up for what we really want.”

Last year in Geneva, N.Y., UCSD was 20-0-2 with 18 shutouts going into the championship against William Smith College. The Triton’s forced two overtimes before losing in sudden death.

“It just slipped away,” Mauro said. “We’re not going to let that happen this year.”

Not if Coach Brian McManus has his way. In three years at UCSD, McManus has compiled a 49-7-4 record and a trio of frustrating return trips from post-season play.

“After last year’s loss in the final,” he said, “we sat down and set the target. We knew we’d be back. That was their first time in a championship game. They learned something.”

Something in the form of playoff experience for which there is no substitute.

“I can’t see them falling apart,” McManus said. “Even if one or two are having a bad game, there are nine others who will carry them through. They have all the skill and will in the world to win it.”

A majority of it will come from seven seniors who have been playing together since they were freshmen. Roommates Mauro, Kingsbury, Faro and Teresa Schwaar and Julie Friess, Sheila Takahashi and Toni Krumme all were starters for UCSD four years ago.

They form a core that McManus said is vital to the team’s success.

“When you have players who understand each other like that, they don’t need coaching,” McManus said. “They make me look good.”

Faro, the team’s second-leading scorer (16 goals), said playing together for so long has given the players a comforting confidence.

“We don’t feel we just have to walk out on the field, but the nerves are a different kind of nerves,” she said. “It’s played a vital role, especially in leadership.”

Said Mauro: “We work real well together on the field. It’s almost like we read each others’ minds. We know each other so well. Someone will pass and automatically know where that other person will be.”

Usually, Mauro can be found tormenting defenders and goalkeepers near the penalty box. She scored 18 goals in 1987 for a school record, only to have it broken last year by sophomore Katy Dulock (21). Mauro scored 23 this season to get back her record, and her 47 goals in three years make her the school’s all-time career leader.

“No one bothers about records,” Mauro said. “They don’t mean a thing if we don’t win the championship. Besides, I couldn’t have scored all those goals without everyone.”

Friess, the goalkeeper, knows all about records. Her 46 shutouts are a career school record.

“If it weren’t for everyone else, forget it,” Friess said. “My defense is incredible. Over the years, we’ve developed into such a complete team.”

But she is ready to complete her career on a winning note.

“I’m ready for this to be my last game,” she said. “I want to go out with a bang. People are telling us not to come home without (the title).”

Should they fail, many team members feel the puzzle would be left without its biggest piece.

“I would feel I had four great years, but there would be something missing,” Faro said. “I’d be lost in the sense that I’ve never wanted anything so much.”

Said Friess: “It would be such a big void.”

Mauro said a title would give her reason enough to retire.

“I keep saying that if we win, that’s my last game,” she said. “That’s how I want to remember it.”