Women Encouraged by Start

Follow the bouncing emotions. The women’s soccer team adopted a this-is-our-year approach to the 1996 season and rolled through the first five games with only one slightly embarrassing hiccup, a 1-1 tie with Loyola Marymount.

Coach Marine Cano said the goal this year was to “get out of the gate fast, maintain it in the middle and finish with a bang,” and the Anteaters were riding high until Wednesday when the University of San Diego, ranked third in the West Region, kicked them in the shins, 2-0.

Irvine, No. 7 in the West, was sluggish and sloppy during the loss at San Diego, their sixth consecutive road game, but they rebounded at home Sunday with a 3-2 victory in a Big West Conference season opener against the No. 25 team in the country, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

So there were lots of smiles Monday in Camp Cano.

“The loss at San Diego was disappointing, more so because we didn’t do the simple things we know we can do,” assistant coach Tiffany Kirsch said. “We had played so many games on the road and so many in a short period [six in 12 days]. I don’t think we were mentally flat, but physically, I think we were a little tired. And San Diego is a very good team that always has you under pressure.”

The loss was a wake-up call, but the Anteaters didn’t need much extra motivation against Cal Poly. The Mustangs compete in Irvine’s annual seven-a-side scrimmage tournaments in the spring, so the players are used to, well, rubbing shoulders, so to speak.

Kirsch, who played at Irvine from 1986-90, still did her best to make sure the team understood what was at stake from a historical perspective.

“I was here for five years and we were always an independent,” she said, “so this game was very exciting for me, especially because it was the first Big West women’s soccer game ever played. The girls were up for the game anyway, but I wanted to make sure they knew we could make history.”

Cano, of course, is focused on leaving his mark in the postseason and must be relieved the Anteaters have nine days off before traveling to San Diego State. The Aztecs beat University of San Diego, 1-0, Sunday to improve to 6-0.

“This schedule was a bit of a gamble on my part, but we came through it pretty well,” Cano said. “We’d like to be perfect, but we aren’t a perfect team, so you have to view it as a very positive start. “I don’t care what sport it is, to play your first six on the road and go 4-1-1, you have to consider that a positive.

“Then to come back Sunday and beat a very good SLO team, that just shows the character of this team.”

The Anteaters, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead over the Mustangs, have scored three or more goals in four games and have given up a total of five all season.

“We started out really focusing on fitness and defense,” Cano said, “and we have our attack down pretty well now. We’ve been stopping them in key parts of the field and creating some quick offense. Sunday was our best offensive performance so far. It’s not easy to score three against a top team like SLO.

“We have to be concerned about letting in the two goals, but still we’re doing it at the right time. They came back at us, but we took charge at the end.”

Cano says the Anteaters will rest, heal and concentrate on “skills, basics, fundamentals” for the next few days, “just like it was the start of a whole new season.”

To reach Cano’s expectations, the next season-within-a-season will have to be as successful as the first one.

Last year, Irvine lost four of its last five games to finish 12-4-3 and was left out of the NCAA playoffs. Five teams--Portland (17-0-2 in the regular season), Stanford (16-3), Santa Clara (14-3-2), UCLA (14-3-2) and Washington (11-7)--were selected from the West. Clearly, the Anteaters are aware that it’s not just how many teams you beat, it’s who you beat and when you beat them.

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Striking out: Strikers Traci Manz and Nicole Bucciarelli are providing defenses with more than they can handle lately. Bucciarelli, who had a hat trick Sunday, leads the team in scoring with 13 points (six goals and an assist) and Manz is second with 11 points (four goals and three assists).

“You can mark Traci out of the game, but she’ll just set up Booch,” Cano said. “Or you can mark Booch out of the game and she’ll set up Traci. I don’t think you can stop them both because they’re really starting to work well together.

“Booch finally relaxed Sunday, took a step back and focused on her own game. She did a great job of picking her spots and created some great opportunities. She could have easily had five goals instead of just three.”

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Links together: Golf Coach Jeff Johnston and Lisa Bohan, director of the Bren Center, will wed Friday. But they’re postponing the honeymoon until next year . . . at the British Open.

“We both love golf,” Johnston says, beaming.

Anteater Notes

Junior Ryan Bailey, who had six points in the season-opening victory over fifth-ranked Stanford, led the water polo team with a seven-point barrage during Saturday’s 16-11 victory over UC Davis. He was named Mountain Pacific Sports Federation player of the week. Bailey, who had 50 points last season, has 22 in five games this year. . . . The women’s volleyball team managed to win only two games while dropping seven consecutive matches going into Monday night’s contest at University of San Diego.

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Coming Attractions

Here’s a look at key events this week for UC Irvine:

* Men’s soccer at 7 tonight. The Anteaters (2-2-1) host Cal State Dominguez Hills at Anteater Stadium. Sophomore midfielder Patrick Lee, from Los Alamitos High, had two goals during Sunday’s 4-3 loss to San Diego State.

* Water polo Saturday at 1 p.m. at USC. The Anteaters, 3-2 and ranked No. 4 in the country, meet the second-ranked Trojans. Irvine’s two losses came over the weekend in the Southern California Tournament when they dropped games to No. 1 UCLA and No. 3 Cal.