By Tressa Girodo
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 3, 1997

UA battles on road trip but loses two

The Arizona soccer team lost to the 19th-ranked Southern Cal 6-3 yesterday but not before giving the Trojans a scare.

UA had a short lived 2-1 lead early in the first half when sophomore's Megan Canaday and Krista Bogdan found the back of the net, but by the Trojans were ahead 4-2.

"USC did an excellent job. But we hung in there," UA head coach Lisa Fraser said. "We fought and came back and scored some goals."

With the loss, Arizona falls to 8-9-1 overall and 2-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference. USC improved to 14-3-1 overall and 5-2 in the Pac-10 as they put together one of its biggest offensive games of the year.

Arizona freshman Elena Galvan cut USC's lead to 4-3 in the 57th minute after scoring on a breakaway, but the Trojans scored two more goals in the 71st and 79th minute.

"This was more scoring than anyone expected. I'm disappointed to have this many scores against us," Fraser said. "USC was awesome shooting and that paid off."

Friday night's match against UCLA was closer at 2-1, but the same result.

While being held to zero shots in the first half and only four in the second half, (Arizona was out-shot by UCLA 24-4) the Wildcats were tied against No. 22 UCLA for most of the game.

Both teams played through a scoreless first half, then UA junior forward Nikki Jones struck first, rebounding her own shot to dent the net at the 50:53 mark. Jones took the Wildcat scoring lead with her fifth goal of the season.

The top team in the conference struck back, however, as junior forward Lari Kiremidjian found the net on an Arizona defensive breakdown.

The game remained tied until the final three minutes, when UCLA senior Traci Arkenberg did what she does best - score. Arkenberg, who is one of the nation's premier scorers and leads the conference, notched the gamewinner for the Bruins, improving the series record to 4-0 over Arizona and the Bruins overall record to 14-2-0 and 6-0 in the Pac-10.

The Wildcats wrap up their season at home this weekend against California and Stanford.