UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Ruggiero’s Defense Has Anteaters on Move

Marine Cano loves offense, but the UC Irvine director of soccer/women’s coach is only goal-happy when his team wins. So a yearlong experiment to move Claudia Ruggiero from fullback to midfielder has ended.

And the 15th-ranked Anteaters’ winning streak continues.

Ruggiero, who played sweeper at Estancia High, is fit enough and fast enough to play in the midfield. And she’s certainly aggressive enough. But after Irvine (8-0-2) tied Pepperdine, 3-3, and USC, 2-2, in mid-September, Cano moved Ruggiero back to defense.

“This one was pretty easy to figure out,” Cano said. “We were scoring goals, but we were giving up too many, five in two games. We needed the experience in the back and Claudia, who marks the other team’s best player, immediately stabilized our defense.”

Since the switch, Irvine is 7-0, including victories over then 17th-ranked Oregon State and 19th-ranked UCLA that vaulted the Anteaters into the top 20 in the nation for the first time.

The key? During those seven victories, Irvine has given up two goals.

“Let’s just say I’ve learned a lot about versatility,” said Ruggiero, a junior on a team with four freshman starters and no seniors. “But I feel very comfortable now. I’m playing a position that I’ve played all my life, the position I was recruited to play when I came here.

“But I did like midfield because you feel a little more involved in the offense and that’s fun.”

Ruggiero, still playing midfield, lived the fullback’s dream during the season-opening 3-1 victory against Hawaii. Trailing the play at the 18-yard line, the ball popped out right in front of her.

“I just touched it once to set it up and sent a floater over the keeper’s hands,” she said, smiling at the recollection.

The Anteaters, however, have become a force because Ruggiero is preventing goals instead of scoring them. Irvine has a brat pack of goal-scorers: four freshmen have scored two or more this season.

So Ruggiero, a biological sciences major who hasn’t decided whether to become a trauma surgeon, nurse or teacher, is clearly focused on what she does best right now.

“We really feel like we’re contenders for something,” she said. “There’s just so much more pride. I mean we always tried hard before and we won some games we probably shouldn’t have just on heart.

“But we have a lot more skill now than we did in my first two years and it’s exciting because we know we can play with anybody.”

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Thought process: Ruggiero played her first season at Irvine for former Coach Ray Smith, whose philosophy was deeply rooted in a defensive foundation. Smith, like many soccer purists, was a firm believer in the safety-first golden rule.

Cano, however, approaches the game like a gambler on a winning streak.

“For players who started here with Ray, it’s been a difficult adjustment,” Ruggiero said. “Ray didn’t like his backs making runs, he wanted them to stay back. With Coach Cano, it’s move up, dribble, even shoot. He really encourages you to try new things, to reach your full potential as player. He never wants to hold you back.”

As is usually the case, however, with freedom comes the burden of responsibility.

“If you play for Cano, all 11 people on the field have a lot on their shoulders in terms of decision-making,” she said. “He helps from the sidelines, more than most coaches, but he gives us so many options for so many different scenarios in practice, that sometimes you get hung up in thinking too much.

“Of course, he’s hoping it will become second nature and we’ll just react. But I still think we’re thinking too much sometimes.”

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Loaded? Basketball practice begins Sunday, but the formal beginning of the season brings as much trepidation as excitement at Irvine. Like Angel fans, supporters of the men’s basketball team have been teased with the prospect of postseason play in recent years only to be disappointed.

However--according to College Sports magazine, anyway--Irvine should be headed for a successful season.

The magazine rates senior Raimonds Miglinieks the 14th best point guard in the country. Miglinieks finished third in the nation last season with 8.4 assists per game, scored 12.6 points a game and led the team with 61 three-pointers.

And 6-foot-9 sophomore Kevin Simmons, who led the Anteaters in scoring (14.9 points a game) and rebounding (7.7), was ranked 23rd among the nation’s power forwards.

The only other Big West Conference player to make the top 30 in any position was University of the Pacific small forward Charles Jones (29th).

In the team’s preseason media guide, Coach Rod Baker says the 1995-96 team “is probably the most talented” he has coached at Irvine. The Anteaters have improved in increments of three or four victories over the last three seasons, boosting their record from 6-21 in 1992-93 to 10-20 in 1993-94 to 13-16 last season.

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New Year’s grieve: The Anteaters have played reasonably well in the early season and amazingly well in the late season in recent years, but the midseason blahs have hit them like a sledgehammer.

Forget the Santa Ana conditions, January has been a cold, cruel month. In four seasons under Baker, the Anteaters are 6-30 in January.

Anteater Notes

The women’s soccer team has a chance to really make an impact on the national rankings Sunday when it plays host to No. 10 Hartford in the second round of the Hyatt Invitational at Anteater Stadium. Irvine opens the tourney against Pacific at 7:30 Friday night and then plays Hartford at 1 p.m. Sunday. . . . How well are the Irvine women playing defense these days? Goalkeeper Stephanie Bose became the Anteaters’ all-time shutout leader Friday night, recording No. 17 against Cal State Dominguez Hills. It was one of her easiest. The Anteaters outshot the Toros, 20-1. . . . How well are they playing offense? Freshman Nicole Bucciarelli extended her streak of consecutive games with at least one goal to four Friday, tying the school record set by Lori Muzzingro in 1993. Bucciarelli leads the team in scoring with 15 points, seven goals and one assist. . . . The men’s water polo team has scored 11 or more goals in four of the last six games. Irvine (8-4, 2-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) is ranked No. 5 in the country. Sophomore goalie Tom Davis continues his iron-man string in front of the net. He has played every second of every game since the 1994 season opener.