What a difference a year makes.
The No. 4 UCLA men’s water polo team (12-4, 4-0 MPSF) is
experiencing a complete turnaround in its season compared to last
year’s record (15-8, 4-4), which included failing to qualify
for the NCAA tournament.
“This year, we felt more of a sense of urgency than we did
last year,” junior center Ted Peck said. “That’s
why we lost a couple close games last year, but now we really feel
like every game this year is a do or die situation and we’ll
have to dig deep and do whatever it takes to pull out a
win.”
UCLA is currently on a seven-game winning streak, which dates
back to the beginning of October.
“We’re actually happy to be practicing,”
sophomore center defender Michael March said. “For a while
when we were working hard and still losing our games, we wondered,
“˜Why should we work hard if we don’t win?’ But,
now we’re winning, and everyone is ready to get in the
pool.”
Winners of 11 of their past 12 matches, the Bruins lone loss
came at the hands of Stanford, 7-4.
UCLA will reunite and square off against the No. 3 Cardinal
(12-3, 1-1) Nov. 1 at 10 a.m. in Palo Alto.
“I feel if we get this win over Stanford we’ll be in
a great position for the remainder of the season,” Peck said.
“The goal is to go undefeated in conference, and if we do
that, it will instill a big sense of confidence in
everyone.”
If the Bruins hope to continue their outstanding play, they will
need to stop Stanford’s leading scorer, junior driver Tony
Azevedo, who commands the Cardinal offense with 50 goals in only 15
matches.
UCLA’s offense will also have to re-calibrate its shooting
against Stanford sophomore goalkeeper Chad Taylor, who has totaled
89 saves on the year.
As for preparation for the Stanford match, UCLA has its game
plan well in hand.
“We’re going to focus a lot of our defense against
Tony,” captain Peter Belden said. “We’ve played
these guys enough before, and we’re familiar with their style
so our success will depend on us being able to put together a good
game.”
The Bruins have been able to close out games thus far in the
season by winning both of their overtime contests, an 11-10 victory
over Long Beach State, and most recently, a 6-5 overtime win over
USC. In comparison, last year’s Bruin squad managed to
salvage only two victories in six overtime contests.
“I’d have to attribute our success to us working
hard during the off-season,” Belden said. “We’re
in such great shape that if we get into overtime like we did
against USC, we’ll have the advantage.”
Furthermore, this year’s Bruin team has been outstanding
in protecting their home pool. Going 6-0 thus far at home has been
a drastic improvement from last year’s subpar 3-3 record.
“We take a lot of pride playing at home,” head coach
Adam Krikorian said. “We’re not going to let any team
beat us in our place.”
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Belden was named Mikasa/MPSF Player of the Week for the week of
Oct. 20-26. He scored the game-winning goal against USC last
Sunday.
Belden leads the team in steals with 17 and has netted 12 goals
on the season.