Heartbreak then redemption. That seems to be the theme for this
year’s UCLA men’s water polo team.
Mirroring the pattern started with a double-overtime loss to
USC, followed by a determined first-place finish in the NorCal
tournament the following weekend, No. 2 UCLA (8-4) managed to
reassert itself with a 9-3 win over No. 7 LMU Sunday after an
excruciating quadruple-overtime 7-6 loss on Saturday to No. 6
Pepperdine.
The Pepperdine loss was full of frustration and absent of any of
the clutch play that carried the Bruins in NorCal. Senior
goalkeeper and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the
Week Brandon Brooks’ sixteen saves, though often amazing,
were not enough. The offense seemingly hit a wall after its sixth
goal.
After building a 6-4 lead at the end of the third period when
sophomore driver Brett Ormsby, sophomore center Ted Peck and
freshman center defender Michael March each scored two goals, the
Bruins failed to score again through almost eighteen minutes of
play. In the process they caused the goal to need a new layer of
paint, as their would-be-game-winning shots repeatedly abused the
crossbar and posts.
A noticeably disgusted head coach Adam Krikorian attributed
Saturday’s sloppy game to a lack of communication,
fundamentals and passing, but also mentioned that he sensed the
team’s complacency.
“We got what we deserved. We had a bad week of
practice.”
But the Bruins again demonstrated that one of the strengths of
this year’s team is its ability to rebound by soundly beating
LMU in a game that Krikorian had called a “character
check.”
The team’s intensity did not wane in the midst of four
first-period ejections. The ejections, though, did not harm UCLA,
as its 5-on-6 defense stood up to the challenge and negated LMU all
four times and eight out of 10 chances total.
This allowed Ormsby to give his team an early lead that it would
never relinquish as the Bruins poured on four unanswered
third-period goals that put the game away.
Ormsby, UCLA’s leading scorer, admitted to coming into the
game with added emotion. “Especially with a close game
yesterday that ended in a heartbreaking loss, we definitely wanted
to make a statement.”
Junior driver Albert Garcia reiterated Ormsby’s message:
“Today we came out with a statement game. We can’t
dwell too much on losses. We just have to play our game.”
Though admittedly not a factor on Saturday, Garcia was at the
center of much of Sunday’s action, scoring two goals for a
share of the match high with Ormsby and Peck.
The Bruins will once again travel north next weekend, for
Saturday and Sunday matches against No. 5 Cal and No. 1 defending
national champion Stanford.
“We got back on a positive note today by redeeming
ourselves from yesterday,” said Coach Krikorian. “Now
we have to get ready for next week’s tough
matches.”
“Stanford and Berkeley will tell us how we look in the
scheme of the NCAA picture,” added Garcia. “It’s
a very tough weekend ahead.”