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  CLAIRE ZUGMEYER After two years at UC Irvine, Bruin forward Stephanie Rigamat has found a home at UCLA.

By Amanda Fletcher

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Say what you want about L.A. She still loves it.

But it’s not the glamour or the glitz that UCLA forward Stephanie Rigamat finds so appealing; it’s the people.

“You have friendlier people,” Rigamat said as she sat in Westwood Plaza. “They hang out here and there are bands and stuff.”

The current Pac-10 Player of the Week, a junior transfer from UC Irvine, is enjoying her life as a Bruin after two years as an Anteater.

“The people here are so much nicer,” Rigamat said. “There’s a more athletic atmosphere and the team caliber is better.”

But then again, she’s always known UCLA was the place for her.

“I loved it when I came and visited,” said Rigamat, who was also recruited by USC, Fresno State and Loyola Marymount. “This is where I always wanted to be.”

Her dream was put on hold, however, when she wasn’t heavily recruited to become a Bruin. She settled instead for a full ride to Division I UCI.

What a mistake.

“I wasn’t happy,” Rigamat confessed. “The coach and I had different opinions on how to play and on the way he coached.

“The school just wasn’t for me socially,” she added.

Even after earning First Team All-Big West honors as a freshman, Rigamat wanted out.

She spent the following summer playing with the U-20 Shamrocks, who went on to win their second consecutive national club championship title.

Not only was it a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the summer gave Rigamat a glimpse of what she was truly capable of.

“That was the best training that I had had,” Rigamat said. “It helped me get out of Irvine by showing me that I could play for a better team.”

But she chalked up her discontent simply to being a freshmen who didn’t yet adjust to college life and returned to UCI for a second season.

By December, Rigamat quit the team for good.

“I was just to the point where I was so unhappy I was willing to go to a lower division in soccer or a JC because I was miserable,” she said.

Hoping to play for her original first choice, Rigamat called then-UCLA head coach Todd Saldaña. The next year she was in Westwood.

But the transfer wasn’t a complete success. UCI head coach Marine Cano withheld Rigamat’s release papers and officially kept her from playing for UCLA.

“It was not a happy good-bye,” Rigamat said. “I think he was upset because along with me, six others left and there was a number of seniors that graduated.”

Finally at UCLA, Rigamat had to redshirt her first season as a Bruin.

“I was upset because I’ve never been in a situation where I couldn’t play,” she said. “I had no choice. I had done all I could do.”

So Rigamat spent a year giving her all at practice with no chance of ever setting foot on the pitch.

“It’s hard to be motivated when you’re not playing,” current UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said. “I respect her because she trained an entire year and never got to play, never got to travel.”

She can look back on it now as a learning experience.

“I got to be a practice dummy for a year,” Rigamat said with a smile. “But I worked hard everyday and I got to watch my position so when I came in this year, I was ready to contribute and do stuff up top.”

Once given the chance, Rigamat didn’t waste any time making her mark.

In the record books, that is.

In UCLA’s game against University of San Diego on Sept. 24, Rigamat intercepted a pass back off a USD kickoff and tied for the fifth fastest goal in NCAA history in a lightening-quick 11 seconds.

“I just watched the ball as it was being passed back and I never took my eyes off it.”

After stripping it from a midfielder, Rigamat beat the last defender and went one-on-one with the goalkeeper. In the blink of an eye it was 1-0, UCLA.

“I wasn’t surprised,” teammate Karissa Hampton said. “She strips balls (from the opposing defense) all the time.”

Rigamat is equally unimpressed by her goal.

“I got a lucky break and took advantage of it,” Rigamat said.

Don’t let her modesty fool you, Rigamat has been setting records for awhile now.

At UCI, Rigamat was her team’s second leading scorer for two years in a row. As a true freshman, she recorded nine goals and seven assists, including the game-tying goal in the Big West Championship game, which UCI went on to win. As a sophomore she notched 13 goals and four assists. With only two seasons as an Anteater, Rigamat holds the No. 5 spot in the UCI record books in career assists.

“I have a knack for the goal I guess,” she said. “I like the pressure of having to score, I think all forwards have that.”

But none have it quite like her.

“He r quickness makes her a threat every time she has the ball,” Ellis said. “She can take players on or run the through ball. When she strikes, she’s explosive, powerful.”

Rigamat’s success can’t be attributed to pure talent alone, but to her dedication as well.

“She has the love of the game thriving in her and I admire her for that,” Hampton said. “I feel like she’s my hope on the field.”

With the NCAA tournament just around the corner, Rigamat and her fellow Bruins have their eyes on a national title.

“It’s like she wants to win all the time,” teammate Tracey Milburn said. “She wants to do it, not just for herself, but for the team.”

These days Rigamat doesn’t ride the pine, she starts, and has played in all 17 games this season. She doesn’t just work hard in practice, she’s been working hard in games where she has already scored eight goals and dished out seven assists.

For Rigamat, the bottom line is that the grass is greener on the Westwood side.

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