Practice is almost over.
In one last grueling drill, the players jump straight out of the
water every time they hear coach Adam Krikorian’s seemingly
never-ending whistle. With the trend of late-game lapses, Krikorian
is trying to teach the team to finish strong with a fierce workout
regimen.
“It was a lot of leg conditioning. It’s a common
theme this week,” Krikorian said. “We want to finish
strong every day in practice because we haven’t been doing it
in the game. We want to get in the habit, and hopefully it will
carry over.”
The Bruins hope their hard work pays off when they take to the
road this weekend to face conference opponent Long Beach State on
Sunday. Recently, the 49ers have shown that they can play with the
conference’s toughest opponents, giving No. 1 USC a real
challenge in an eventual 13-9 loss.
“They have a lot of weapons,” Krikorian said.
“A lot of older, experienced guys who’ve been around.
We’re going to have our hands full at their place.”
One of those big weapons is 6-foot-6-inch senior Brett McCleave,
who notched three goals against the Trojans.
Sunday will be the first time these two teams have squared off
against each other this season.
“It’s a mystery playing a team you’ve never
seen before,” said UCLA redshirt senior David Pietsch.
The last time these two faced in conference play was on
Halloween last season, with the Bruins taking the victory 11-6.
The Bruins are not going into this year’s game with just
memories; the team goes through a specific routine to prepare for
games.
“Tonight, we’ll watch a video with notes (from the
coaches) on player tendencies,” Pietsch said. “We
reference ourselves like a football team. We focus on one team all
week.”
The team will go into the weekend without redshirt junior
Christian Pulido, who will undergo surgery next week for the torn
labrum in his shoulder. Redshirt junior Grant Zider’s broken
eardrum, however, is a much less serious injury, and it won’t
cost Zider any game time.
“It won’t affect his play. He’ll wear an
earplug,” Krikorian said. “It will be more of a
nuisance.”
The bench has already seen a lot of playing action this year,
and may see even more against Long Beach.
“Out of the 13 or more guys we play, all of the second
group will get more time in the water,” Krikorian said.
Going into this weekend’s play, UCLA has five games left
before the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships.
Pietsch noted the specific areas that need improvement to help
their chances as they gear up for the tournament.
“We need to put games away. That’s the biggest
concern. We need to execute on offense, but make stops when we need
to. It’s a dagger when teams tie up the game after being down
three goals in the fourth quarter.”