It’s almost crunch time in conference play for men’s
water polo, and the No. 4 Bruins are getting an early start to this
weekend’s play.
The team faces off against No. 6 UC Irvine tonight on the road,
and then plays host to No. 5 Pepperdine on Saturday. The Bruins
have played both teams twice this season and have won all four of
those matches.
The key to the first game for UCLA lies in winning the battle of
opposites. While Irvine boasts a big and powerful squad led by Tim
Hutten and Dreason Barry, the Bruins will rely on their agility and
the bench.
“They’re going to try to use their size and strength
against us,” said coach Adam Krikorian. “We’re
going to have to use our quickness, speed, and hopefully our depth
as well.”
The first two matches against the Anteaters contrasted each
other sharply. The first match on September 17 at UC Irvine went
into overtime with the Bruins taking a 9-7 victory.
“The first time we played Irvine it was probably a game
that I don’t know if we should’ve won, but we pulled it
out,” Krikorian said. “The second time we played them I
thought we did a nice job and won convincingly.”
In the second game, the teams started out even, knotted at 2-2
after one quarter. Then redshirt senior captain David Pietsch
turned on the jets and scored five more goals, tallying a
career-high six goals en route to a 10-8 win.
Recently, however, UC Irvine has been on a tear, showing no fear
against the nation’s elite teams.
“They’re playing as well as any team in the country
just by their results,” Krikorian said. “They lost to
‘SC by a goal, beat (UC) San Diego by nine goals, and they
just had a big upset win over Stanford by three goals. So
we’re definitely going to be ready.”
Redshirt freshman attacker Krsto Sbutega, who also had a goal in
the last game against UCI, commented that today’s game was
going to be about heart.
“We’re not going to be 100 percent from a physical
point of view,” Sbutega said. “We’re getting
ready for the conference tournament so it’s going to take a
lot of pride because we want to win.”
After the big test of UCI, the Bruins will come back to Westwood
and Sunset Canyon Recreation Center just in time to welcome in the
Waves from Pepperdine.
The teams have had two close games against each other with UCLA
winning 7-5 and 8-7. In the last game against Pepperdine, Pietsch
once again showed strong leadership, scoring three goals.
“Both games against Pepperdine were pretty similar,”
Krikorian said. “I think we played pretty well.”
This time however, the matches count toward conference records
and with only four games left before the Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation Championships, both games are crucial.
In the back of the team’s mind is the shoulder of redshirt
junior Christian Pulido. The center defender was a solid veteran
presence on the team before going down with the injury. Pulido
underwent surgery today to repair a torn labrum on his throwing
shoulder.
It’s a coach’s cliche, but going head to head with a
team that’s caused such problems for the nation’s best
teams lends some credence to Krikorian’s comments when he
said, “To be honest, we’re not even thinking about
Pepperdine a whole lot. We’re going to concentrate and focus
on Irvine and once Friday rolls around, start thinking about
Pepperdine.”
“It’s gonna be two tough games,” Sbutega
said.
“I’m sure we can sweep both the teams if we come
ready to play and I think we’re mentally ready.”