UCI NOTEBOOK : O’Brien Plugs Gaps on Soccer Field

The UC Irvine men’s soccer team has suffered a spate of minor injuries recently. The solution? Plenty of ankle bandages and a large dose of John O’Brien.

O’Brien, a sophomore midfielder who was named first-team All-Big West as a freshman last season, has the ability to fill in where needed.

Missing a sweeper? Move O’Brien back and let the defense depend on him.

Irvine was clinging to a 2-1 lead Friday at San Jose State. With 30 minutes left, Coach Derek Lawther dropped O’Brien back.

“We put him in on defense, he did a great job and we won going away,” Lawther said.

The 3-1 victory was Irvine’s first of the season in the Big West, and gave the Anteaters confidence that they will do much better than last season, when they won only one conference match,

against Cal State Fullerton.

“Things are looking pretty good,” O’Brien said. “We’ve won five games already and last year we won five games all year.”

Irvine is 5-3, 1-2 in the Big West after finishing 5-14-2, 1-8-1 last season.

“Everybody has a better attitude and we’re playing together more,” O’Brien said. “We’re finding out that we have some players with a winning attitude.”

O’Brien, with eight points, is the team’s second-leading scorer this season. He trails junior Kevin Smith, who has 11 points and recently became the school’s all-time leading scorer.

It might seem that O’Brien would score more if he were out front, but midfield is the position he prefers.

“As a midfielder, he’s a creator,” Lawther said. “Up front, he can be explosive, but he doesn’t like to play forward. He likes to come from behind. A lot of players don’t like to be marked.

He likes the defender in front of him, so he can go at him with speed.”

Lawther calls O’Brien, who is from Upland, “a very, very skillful player.” But he’s at his best when he’s in the middle of other good players, rather than when he feels he must carry the

load.

If this team’s year continues to be better than last, and the next one better than this one, there might be a lot more recognition for O’Brien by the time he’s a senior.

Stat of the Week: The water polo team is outscoring opponents by an average of five goals: 11.89-6.89.

Irvine is 7-2, but its only losses are to California and UCLA, two of the top teams in the rankings. No. 1 Cal, the defending national champion, ended Irvine’s winning streak at six games by

handing the Anteaters a 9-5 loss Sunday in Berkeley. Irvine, ranked fourth, lost to No. 3 UCLA in the season-opening UCI tournament in Corona del Mar.

The women’s cross-country team, which finished fourth in the NCAA championships last season, is ranked 19th in the season’s first national poll after losing All-Americans Buffy Rabbitt and

Maria Akraka.

Rayna Cervantes is the team’s only returning All-American, but she has yet to show her top form in early-season races.

Irvine will face seven of the country’s top 25 women’s teams Saturday at the Stanford Invitational. The men’s team, which is not ranked, also will compete at Stanford.

After a one-year hiatus, a Midnight Madness session will again mark the opening of men’s basketball practice.

NCAA rules allow organized on-court practices to begin Oct. 15, so Irvine will hold a public celebration beginning at 10:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in the Bren Center. Anteater races, a three-point

shooting contest and a student dunk contest will precede the team’s 12:01 a.m. practice.

The golf team opens its season this weekend at the New Mexico State tournament in Las Cruces. Top returning players include senior Lyle Archer, whose 74.89 stroke average led the team last

season, and William Yanagisawa, who was Irvine’s most valuable player as a freshman last season. Yanagisawa set a school record for 54 holes with a 209 in his victory at the Grand Canyon

Invitational last April, and was named second-team All-Big West.