Water polo finishes a happy fourth
Bruins beat Waves to reach semi-final round; lose to Stanford,
Cal
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
LONG BEACH Â It was an emotional end to a tumultuous
season, as the underdog UCLA men’s water polo team beat No. 4
Pepperdine Friday night, 8-7, in overtime to advance to the
semi-finals of the NCAA Championships, and went on to a
fourth-place final showing.
The Bruins had not been expected to advance to the tournament at
all, after losing national team member Jim Toring to a broken leg
in mid-October, and hole-set Mark Sutter two weeks later to a torn
meniscus in his left knee. But doubts were put aside by the end of
the weekend, as the Bruins pulled together as a team and declared
themselves a veritable force for next season.
"I’m proud of our effort," UCLA head coach Guy Baker said. "Our
players grew a lot this weekend. It was an emotional weekend, and
we played hard."
The weekend’s first game against Pepperdine was probably the
most difficult match of the tournament for the Bruins. Coming into
the game, UCLA was 1-1 against the Waves and both games were
decided by one point. The winner of this NCAA match would advance
to the semi-final round against No. 1 Stanford, while the loser
would go into the consolation round.
The Bruins suffered a blow early in the game, when after one
minute, the ejection of UCLA’s Steve Covec allowed Pepperdine
senior Zac Holder to make a two-point shot. But two points by
team-captain Scott Turner brought the score to 2-2 after the first
quarter.
Neither team could gain more than a two-point lead for the
remainder of the game, as the Bruins and Waves traded the lead back
and forth until the fourth quarter. With nine seconds remaining,
UCLA’s Corbin Graham scored on an ejection of a Pepperdine man, and
the 6-6 score sent the game into overtime.
Scores in overtime by Jeremy Braxton-Brown and Luther Weidner
countered the one goal by Pepperdine, and the 8-7 win sent the
Bruins into the semi-finals.
"The whole tournament for us was the Pepperdine game," UCLA
goalkeeper Matt Swanson said. "And it was probably the best game of
the year. We really came together as a team."
The semi-final match was played against No. 1 and eventual NCAA
champions Stanford. The Bruins were missing some spark, after the
emotionally-draining win over Pepperdine the night before. The
Cardinal showcased the dominance they have had all season, using
aggressive play and an excellent counterattack to win the game,
9-5.
The biggest setback for the Bruins came one and a half minutes
into the fourth quarter, when a defender’s elbow broke Bruin Adam
Krikorian’s nose and sent him to the sidelines for the rest of the
tournament.
* * *
UCLA faced No. 3 California Sunday in the final round which
would determine the third-place team. Despite Krikorian’s absence,
the Bruins managed to stay close at the beginning.
UCLA trailed 3-2 at the start of the third quarter, when Cal
went on a scoring binge. Cal’s goalie Sean Nolan, allowed only
three more Bruin goals, while the Bears took off in the second
half, eventually winning 8-5.
"The team played incredibly well this weekend," UCLA assistant
coach Matt Emerzian said. "It was just a huge step for us to
qualify to this tournament, we were probably the happiest
fifth-place team (at the conference tournament) ever. But we came
in and beat Pepperdine in the first game, and just took a gigantic
leap into the top four. All this year, (Baker) and I have said as
long as you play your hardest and give your greatest effort, we can
never get mad at you. That’s what they did all weekend long."