Cougars Begin the NCCA Tourney at UCLA

BYU Celebrates its 2010 MWC Tourney Title

The No. 17 BYU women’s soccer team (16-3-2) begins its quest for an NCCA championship on Thurdsay as the Cougars travel to No. 24 UCLA (12-7-1) to take on the Bruins in the first round of the NCAA College Cup.

This is the 13th time in the last 14 years that BYU has made an appearance in the tournament.

The Cougars won the The Mountain West Conference tournament championship last weekend in their final season in the conference, shutting out San Diego State 2-0 and New Mexico 1-0.

BYU brings a balanced scoring attack into the NCAA’s with 10 players having scored goals this year.

Five Cougars have scored five or more goals.

Junior forward Jennie Marshall leads BYU with seven goals on the season, while Carlee Payne leads the team in scoring with 19 points on six goals and seven assists.

Sophomore midfielder/forward Jessica Ringwood has scored six goals as well and was named the MVP of the MWC tournament.

Defensively the Cougars and goalkeeper McKinzie Olson have recorded nine shutouts in 21 games and look to continue the momentum from last weekend’s performance. BYU has surrendered two goals in a game just once this season, a 2-1 loss at then No. 10 Santa Clara.

That defense will be tested by one of the top players in the country in UCLA’s Sydney Laroux who has scored 12 goals for the Bruins in 20 games this season.

Laroux is also a member of the USA National U-20 team and has scored 30 goals in 36 international games. She is widely considered one of the most explosive U-20 players in the world.

If the Cougars get by the Bruins, they will face the winner of Central Florida and Fresno State. That game would also be played in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Deep Shades of Blue caught up with BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood and got her thoughts on taking on the Bruins, including the situation of opening up on the home field of a lower ranked team…