Before the season even began, excuses flooded the locker
room.
Excuses turned to finger pointing.
Finger pointing led to a mediocre 5-3 start and a team searching
for unity and leadership.
But, Saturday’s 7-6 overtime victory over No. 5 Pepperdine
certified that UCLA (18-5, 7-1 MPSF) has in fact erased all
memories of its early-season lackluster play.
“The team chemistry was lacking and we weren’t on
the same page in the beginning of the season,” junior center
Ted Peck said. “It took a little while for some of the
players to get used to our system of countering and defense, but
now it’s gotten a lot smoother.”
“Our success has been what all the players and coaches
expected.”
The win against Pepperdine (15-7, 3-5) was more to No. 4 UCLA
than just avoiding being swept by the Waves. It was an exclamation
to the entire league that the Bruins are a team with which to be
reckoned.
“We’re rolling,” captain Peter Belden said.
“I feel we’re doing well, winning 12 of our last 13
games. And it’s because of two things, our defense and our
counter-attack.”
However, UCLA coach Adam Krikorian is only thinking about one
thing.
“We’re not concerned about what teams think of
us,” Krikorian said. “We’re just concerned with
playing good water polo for the rest of the regular season and the
MPSF, and hopefully into the NCAA.”
Junior driver Brett Ormsby, the Bruins’ leading scorer
with 57 goals, proved to be the difference in the match, racking up
three goals in the contest. And none were more important than his
game winner in overtime.
“We expect that from him every game,” Krikorian
said. “He steps up in the clutch every game and even more so
in the past few games.”
UCLA found itself down 4-3 heading into the fourth quarter, but
the Bruins remained unruffled. Ormsby, Belden and redshirt freshman
Chris Pulido calmly notched three goals in the final period to the
Waves’ two goals, sending the game into overtime.
For the fifth time this season, the Bruins stared down a
possible loss in the face during overtime, and once again they were
able to grind out a victory.
“When it gets late in the game we feel we can beat any
team, especially in overtime,” Krikorian said. “Our
conditioning is the biggest reason why we feel that anytime when
the game goes down to the wire, we’ll be able to pull it
out.”
The Bruins were offensively efficient this past weekend despite
the Waves’ defense. Pepperdine’s junior goalie Ben
Tait, who finished with eight saves, is first in the MPSF in goals
against, only allowing an average of 4.89 goals per contest
“You’re going to score goals in a game, but we
didn’t play well offensively and Pepperdine’s defense
was solid,” Belden said. “Luckily for us, our defense
won the game for us.”
UCLA junior goalie Joe Axelrad, who is fourth in the MPSF in
goals allowed with 5.85, had another superb outing at the cage.
Axelrad finished the game with nine saves and held Pepperdine close
to his season average.
Pepperdine had six different players register goals in the
game.
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UCLA will be the third seed in the upcoming MPSF tournament.
Stanford edged the Bruins for the No. 2 seed this weekend by
defeating UC Irvine and Long Beach State.
By virtue of the head-to-head matchups between the three teams,
USC will be ranked first.