It is unusual for a water polo team of UCLA’s caliber to
play two bad games in a row, and Saturday proved that once
again.
The No. 4 Bruins won 10-8 over the No. 7 Irvine at the Rose Bowl
Aquatic Center, beating a quality opponent two days after playing
poorly in a win against Loyola Marymount.
The last time UCLA faced Irvine, the game went into overtime,
with the Bruins ultimately defeating the Anteaters 9-7.
“I’m happy with our performance,” UCLA coach
Adam Krikorian said. “We did a good job against a strong and
physical Irvine team.”
The Bruins came out of the gates a little sluggish, which could
be attributed to the aggressiveness of UCI’s defense.
With the score tied 2-2 after one quarter, senior David Pietsch
began to assert himself.
Pietsch scored three goals in the second quarter alone, and a
career-high six in the game, to extend the Bruins to a 6-2 lead at
halftime that they would not again relinquish.
“It’s kind of fitting,” Krikorian said.
“Yesterday, I yelled at him for trying to do too much in
practice. I called him Michael Jordan. He might be making a little
statement to me here today.
“He just played great. It was all execution and the fact
that it is a team game. The other guys opened up room for
him.”
For UCI, the game against UCLA is their rivalry game, so the
Bruins were expecting the strong effort the Anteaters put out.
“They always come out really hardcore,” Pietsch
said.
“They’re always super hyped up. Last time, we only
beat them in overtime. To them, we are like USC is to
us.”
The Bruins were outscored 6-4 in the second half, but they held
on for the victory.
Two weeks ago in the SoCal tournament, UCLA might have let this
one slip away or go to overtime. Not this game, though.
“I thought we just played overall pretty well,”
Pietsch said. “We’ve got to end quarters and games
well, and we didn’t do that as well as we would like today,
but it was enough for the win.”
Junior Will Didinger, who started at goalie, notched five saves
against the Anteaters and saved a couple of balls launched no more
than an arm’s length from his face.
“I thought I played all right,” Didinger said.
“A couple of balls were tipped that went in, but I made some
pretty good saves. I thought I played better than I did against
LMU.”
Krikorian, though happy with the win, was hoping for better play
in the second half.
“We looked a little tentative offensively when we went up
by four goals,” Krikorian said.
“It was like we were playing to not make mistakes that
would let them back into it.”
With the win, the Bruins improve to 9-2 heading into
Saturday’s game against No. 3 Cal, who beat No. 2 Stanford
over the weekend.