Sporting a sparkling 2002 women’s water polo championship
ring, coach Adam Krikorian gave his team a speech about the
significance of the upcoming weekend.
The men’s team hasn’t reached the championship
plateau since 2000, and Krikorian emphasized maintaining focus on
the next two games against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday and rival
USC on Sunday rather than looking into the future.
“It takes away from our focus if we continue to talk about
the NCAA Championships,” Krikorian said. “It’ll
make us complacent and we’ll start losing focus on our
current play.”
The No. 5 Bruins (10-4, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)
will have to maintain their concentration and poise this weekend as
they continue conference play at home against much-improved No. 9
UCSB (11-8, 0-1 MPSF) and crosstown-rival No. 2 USC (12-2, 3-0
MPSF).
Beating both No. 1 California ““ in a 7-6 overtime thriller
““ and Pacific has definitely had a positive effect on the way
the team has carried itself in practice this week.
“When you’re winning it allows you to stay positive
and stay motivated,” Krikorian said.
With last week’s performance and a five-game winning
streak in mind, the Bruins are brimming with confidence. And
rightfully so, with the amount of work they have been putting
in.
“I definitely feel that we’ve improved in every game
that we’ve played and every tournament we’ve been
in,” junior driver Brett Ormsby said. “Hopefully
we’ll be able to carry the momentum we have to this
week’s conference play, especially when we play against
USC.”
The Bruins and Trojans are sitting atop the MPSF as the only
undefeated teams in conference play, and this Sunday’s
critical match will have significant ramifications in the MPSF
standings.
Leading the Trojan attack is Juraj Zatovic, who has posted 34
goals this year. Goalkeeper Bozidar Damjanovic has 99 saves on the
year.
Brian Alexander leads the Gauchos with 44 goals, and goalkeeper
Rick Wright has recorded 123 saves in only 19 matches.
The last time the Bruins played the Gauchos, the teams were
deadlocked through three quarters until sophomore Michael March
secured the win for UCLA, 9-7.
“Santa Barbara is one of those teams that isn’t that
good,” junior captain Peter Belden said. “But they are
much improved and we can’t overlook them.”
Krikorian’s biggest concern about playing two matches
against ranked teams is the Bruins’ lack of killer
instinct.
“It happened this past Saturday when we let Cal back into
the match and it has happened numerous times in the past few
weeks,” Krikorian said. “We’ve had mental lapses
that could’ve cost us the game.”
Regardless of this weekend’s outcome, Krikorian believes
in putting a positive spin on his team’s play thus far.
“The most important thing for us this weekend is that we
want to play well, win or lose. We’ve won eight of our last
nine games, but we’ve played well in nine of the
games,” Krikorian said.