A dream comes true for Krikorian
Poloist follows in brothers’ footsteps as NCAAs begin
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA water polo player Adam Krikorian grew up dreaming of the
NCAAs. His older brother Blake had been a Bruin poloist from
1985-1989, three years of which included NCAA berths. Krikorian
attended those games, which remain a constant reminder to him since
the Bruins have not qualified since he has been here.
"My brother always told me that the NCAAs was the greatest
feeling," Krikorian said. "Just to play at Belmont Plaza. I went to
all his games and I
have a really good idea what the NCAAs will be like. The
emotions are raised up three levels, probably to the highest level
they’ve ever gotten to in this sport."
Pressure was intense for Krikorian  and in fact most of
the Bruin team  going into the last round of the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation tournament. Up to that point the Bruins
had been having a shaky season, and they were attempting to put it
all behind them by qualifying for the NCAAs.
The game was UCLA vs. UCSB, and both teams were playing for
fifth place and the last remaining invitation to the NCAA
tournament. The underdog Bruins had battled back from a 2-6 deficit
in the third quarter to tie the score 7-7 and there was only 2:54
remaining in the game.
With 1:30 on the clock, a Santa Barbara man was ejected and
Krikorian, who had been missing shots all day, hurled the ball in
for a score, and the game ended 8-7.
"I really haven’t played that well this year," Krikorian said.
"I’ve gone up and down with the team. But the past three weeks I
realized I had to let my emotions go. I had to play with all my
heart. This year hasn’t been the best year we’ve had, but right
there we just may have made up for the whole year. All the bad
losses, the loss to Pepperdine, the loss to Irvine, we made up for
it in that one tournament."
The Bruins are going into the NCAAs as probably the biggest
underdogs of the tournament. The first round will be against No. 4
Pepperdine on Friday at 5 p.m. Ranked fifth, UCLA will be at a
slight disadvantage because of the way the draw is set up. While
the teams ranked 1-3 play traditionally less competitive teams from
the East coast, the fourth and fifth seeds must play each other.
The winner of this game will play No. 1 Stanford in the
semi-finals, the loser will go into the consolation round.
Still, the Bruins will be there, and as one of the only players
on the team with experience of the tournament, Krikorian will be a
leader.
"Not only does Adam know of the NCAAs because of his brother,"
UCLA head coach Matt Emerzian said, "but he has the perfect NCAA
mentality. He plays his best games when he has the hardest
match-ups because he puts confidence into his play. The NCAAs are
really physical and the energy level is unbelievable, that’s really
good for his game."
"All my life I’ve been waiting to go to the NCAAs," Krikorian
said. "Of course I’m nervous, but nervousness helps you. Everyone’s
really excited, we’ve played well, we’ve been through a lot of one
goal games, and that should help us on Friday against
Pepperdine.
"We’re going in as the fifth seed and we’ve lost two of our best
players. We have nothing to lose. Sometimes that’s the easiest way
to play."