UCLA, USC women have more at stake than usual
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
Bruins and Trojans won't be playing for just the usual civic bragging rights Saturday night. A place in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals goes to the winner.
There will be much more than bragging rights on the line Saturday night when top-seeded UCLA (20-0-2) faces No. 4-seeded USC (16-4-2) in an NCAA tournament round-of-16 women's soccer game at UCLA's Drake Stadium.
It's a rematch of last year's College Cup semifinal won by USC, 2-1. And it's another meeting between two programs that attracted a series-record crowd of 7,804 to the Coliseum on Oct. 24 for a Pacific 10 Conference match won by UCLA, 2-1.
It's also another meeting between UCLA's Lauren Cheney and USC's Amy Rodriguez, who were teammates last summer in helping the U.S. national team win the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
USC has never beaten the Bruins in Westwood, going 0-11. The match begins at 6:30 p.m., with tickets costing $10 for adults and $8 for students.
The winner advances to the NCAA quarterfinals to play either Virginia or Duke next week.
-- Eric Sondheimer
