UCI aims to buck trend
Entering his 10th season as the UC Irvine women’s soccer coach, Scott Juniper has typically worked to overcome the impression created by preseason predictions.
This year, however, the coaches’ poll that forecasts UCI will be seventh among nine Big West Conference schools, mirroring the ‘Eaters disappointing conference finish in 2015, is among the arrows in Juniper’s motivational quill.
“I think I say every year that I’m not paying much attention to the polls,” said Juniper, whose teams have missed the Big West Tournament the last two years after six straight appearances that included back-to-back conference regular-season titles and NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011. “But the reality is, you can’t help but feel [the seventh-place label] is a bit of a slap in the face.
“So, as much as I’d like to pretend that I don’t pay attention to it, it’s a reminder that we have a lot of work to do. My whole time here, we’ve usually been picked in the first group of teams and that’s not the same this year. We’ll use it as fuel to our fire. It will make us hungrier to prove a point. Our goal is to be No. 1, not No. 7, so hopefully by the end of the season, people will recognize that we’ve come a long way and that this is a team ready to challenge for a championship.”
UCI (7-11-1, 3-5 in conference last year), finished in the conference’s second division for only the second time in Juniper’s tenure, the first since 2008. It was the second straight losing season after a string of five straight winning campaigns under Juniper.
The good-news/bad-news is that UCI returns 91.3 % of its goal production (21 of its 23 last year), and 89.3 % of its assist total from 2015. In addition, nearly 70 % of its 209 cumulative starts are also back.
Further indication of the trend toward the future, the Anteaters have just three seniors this season. Those players combined for 22 starts, two goals and one assist last season. Midfielder Sammie James started 15 games as a junior in 2015.
“We calculated that 70 % of our minutes played last year were by players with less than two years of [collegiate] experience,” Juniper said. “That’s exhausting as a coaching staff, because it’s a lot of teaching, teaching, teaching and flooding players with a lot of new information.”
With 11 sophomores and eight freshmen on this year’s roster, there figures to be a significant learning curve this season as well. But Juniper believes that the seasoning earned by returning young players, as well as the talent of the incoming freshmen, will help this year’s squad jeopardize predictions of doom.
Junior Kiana Palacios is the most heralded of those who gained experience last season. A forward who led the ‘Eaters in goals (five) and points (13 with two for a goal and one for an assist), Palacios earned second-team all-conference honors and is the lone UCI representative on the preseason all-conference team.
But Palacios, who returned Sunday from a month of training with Mexico’s entry in the upcoming U20 World Cup in Papua New Guinea, will likely be available only for nonconference games, as her commitment with the U20 World Cup will conflict with conference play.
“Dropping Kiana into our mix gives everyone a lift,” Juniper said. “She inspires people with the way she plays and the intensity she brings to both sides of the ball.”
Palacios is expected to once again contribute to the scoring load, but Juniper said junior midfielder Alex Karlowitsch, sophomore forward Jonnae Joseph and freshman midfielder Jessica Miclat are also expected to display scoring skills this season.
Defender Kelsey Texiera, a fifth-year senior, junior midfielder Grayson Galbraith and sophomore midfielder Aleah Kelley are tri-captains this season and they represent a team dynamic that has Juniper and his coaching staff excited.
“This team really wants to build a culture,” Juniper said. “We [coaches] introduce concepts and philosophies about what a winning team culture is and they buy into it, build on it and have found their own ways to manifest that in what we do. They are taking ownership and really pushing it forward.”
Karlowitsch and senior Tatyana Garrett (two goals apiece in 2015) are among six returning players to have scored last season, while junior defenders Noel Baham and sophomore defender Shelby Petty each chipped in two assists a year ago.
Lili Andino, a sophomore midfielder, and junior defender Andrea Mensen are among those expected to assume an expanded role this season, Juniper said, while transfers Reeman Bzeih (a sophomore defender who played at UCLA), and junior twins Maritza Acuna, a defender, and Janeth Acuna, a midfielder-forward, arrive from Rio Hondo College.
Still another transfer, Isabella Gutierrez, a sophomore who played at Louisville, figures to provide a spark, as does sophomore midfielder Brittany Nguyen, a member of the Big West All-Freshman team last season.
Playing time at goalkeeper is a three-player competition, Juniper said, between junior Maria Magana and freshmen Maddie Newsom and Maddie Puliafico.
“All three have different qualities,” Juniper said of the goalkeepers. “I’d be lying to you if I told you I knew who was going to start on Friday [the season opener at home against Fairfield at 7 p.m.].
UCI has been displaced from its usual practice field by Rams training camp. The ‘Eaters are practicing on the student recreation center facility that Juniper said was better than most practice surfaces in California.
The Anteaters have displaced themselves with a schedule that includes just four home games among their first 15 contests.
Two of those home games come early. Saint Mary’s invades Anteater Stadium on Sunday at 2 p.m.
A Sept. 4 home date with Pittsburgh and a Sept. 25 clash with Portland are the other two home games, until the ‘Eaters play host to four straight conference games from mid- to late-October.
UCI opens conference play on Sept. 30 at Long Beach State, which is picked to win the conference.