The draw for the MPSF men’s water polo tournament has been
released, and, as expected, UCLA is where it has been for the past
two months ““ No. 1. With a 16-game winning streak at hand,
the Bruins will play No. 8 seed UC Santa Barbara in the first
round. The match is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 26, at 6:30 p.m. in
Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Complex. If the Bruins win, they
will play the winner between No. 4 seed Long Beach State and No. 5
seed UC Irvine on Saturday, with the conference final looming on
Sunday. The other two first-round games are No. 2 Stanford v. No. 7
Pepperdine and No. 3 USC v. No. 6 California. Every team is
guaranteed three matches as there are consolation games Saturday
and Sunday. The Bruins (21-2, 8-0 MPSF), as the No. 1 seed, were
lucky to be placed opposite of Stanford and Cal, who are the only
two teams that have beaten them this year. In their last meeting,
the Bruins pummeled UC Santa Barbara 16-5.
TRAINING HARD, YET RELAXING: The Bruins will
get a break of sorts this week, since they don’t have another
game until the MPSF Tournament from Nov. 26-28. The other seven
teams in the tournament all play this weekend. “We’re
not going to relax from our training, but we are going to relax
mentally,” UCLA coach Adam Krikorian said. “It can be
draining to have to prepare for tough games every weekend.”
The Bruins have had several tough games lately, having to avoid
upsets in close, physical matches against USC and UC Irvine over
the past weekend. “We know everyone is going to play their
best against us and try to knock off the No. 1 team,”
redshirt senior attacker Albert Garcia said. Krikorian believes
this extra week off can be useful to work on things within the team
and to not have to worry about preparing for their next opponent.
“We get to do some no-brainer stuff,” Krikorian
said.
SENIOR DAY: Sunday’s match against UC
Irvine marked the final home game for the six Bruin seniors, the
entire starting lineup ““ Joseph Axelrad, Peter Belden, Albert
Garcia, Josh Hewko, Brett Ormsby and Ted Peck. All were given
flowers and a plaque with their picture and a picture of all of the
seniors on it before the game. “It hasn’t really dawned
on me that I won’t be here next year,” Garcia said.
“I have nothing but positive memories out of this
pool.” “It’s weird. It definitely doesn’t
feel like it’s my last game here,” Peck said.
“I’ll miss playing here, but I don’t think
I’ll miss it until the start of next season."