Tuesday, December 1, 1998
Waterpolo briefs
Waves wipe out Bruins; UCLA out of NCAA finals
The UCLA men’s water polo team placed sixth at the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) tournament and consequently missed
qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
The Bruins fell out of conference championship contention in
their first outing against Pepperdine.
The Bruins seemed poised to win by the third quarter with a tie
score. The Waves, featuring three seniors – Todd King, Jeremy Pope
and Merrill Moses – from last year’s NCAA championship team,
narrowly advanced to the semifinal by beating the Bruins 7-6.
With that loss went the automatic spot in the NCAA championships
that goes to the conference tournament winner.
Being the No. 2 ranked team in the nation after No. 1 USC, the
Bruins’ chance to get the at-large bid relied on USC winning the
tournament. All they could do from that point was to root for their
rival team, which had won the early round against Long Beach
State.
The Bruins beat the University of the Pacific 8-5 in the
consolation semifinal in what was considered as one of the most
chaotic games. With UOP’s physical playing style and verbally
offensive fans, the referee threw out two UOP fans and UCLA head
coach Guy Baker in the game’s duration.
Even with the crowd, constant halting calls by officials and
lack of a coach, UCLA pulled through to beat UOP under assistant
coach Adam Krikorian’s direction.
"Adam did a good job with the players and the team rose to the
occasion," said Baker. "There was definitely some adversity and I’m
glad we could handle it."
After all the morning glory, the Bruins were faced with the
disappointing news that USC lost to Stanford in the semifinal round
in a sudden-death overtime game.
Stanford gets an automatic spot in the NCAA championship
tournament. Because of USC’s higher regular season record, the
Trojans get the at-large bid to the four-team tournament next week
instead of the Bruins.
Knowing the inevitable, it was useless to win the consolation
final which would have given the Bruins a fifth place tournament
finish. They lost to Cal, 7-6, and finished sixth in an overtime
game.
The Bruins end their season with a 17-6 overall and 6-2
conference record.
Written by Steve Kim, Daily Bruin Senior Staff
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