It’s not every day a winning streak spans part of two
seasons, and it’s not every day a team wins 39 games in a
row. So it’s not every day a streak like that gets snapped
““ as was the case for the Bruins’ own streak after
their 10-8 loss to USC on Sunday.
But going into this weekend’s games against San Jose State
and UC Irvine, the No. 2 Bruins (6-1) are looking within
themselves, rather than focusing on the loss.
Instead, the Bruins plan to use this past weekend’s game
as a measuring stick for what they need to improve on to reach
their ultimate goal: defending their national title.
“The biggest thing is just improving on the things we
didn’t do that well this past weekend (at Stanford),”
coach Adam Krikorian said. “It’s going to be more about
us this weekend than necessarily preparing for two teams.
That’s not to show any disrespect to those two teams, but
we’re more concerned about what we can control and how
we’re playing.”
Krikorian said the team is not dwelling on the loss, but is
instead using this point in the season as a springboard towards the
playoffs in late April and early May.
“I feel like we got a really good gauge on ““ most
importantly ““ what we need to work on,” Krikorian
said.
Saturday’s tilt with No. 10 San Jose State will be the
Bruins’ first home game of the season. The match is scheduled
for 1 p.m. at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. UCLA will then
travel down the 405 to face No. 13 UC Irvine on Sunday.
Though neither team is ranked as highly as the Bruins’
opponents from last weekend, both games are essential to
UCLA’s success, as both teams are Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation conference foes.
The two games also represent an opportunity to keep improving as
a team, as the Bruins integrate new key players into different
roles.
“San Jose State and Irvine aren’t an ‘SC or a
Stanford or a Berkeley,” said redshirt junior Kelly Rulon,
who leads the team in scoring with 20 goals and has scored multiple
times every game this season. “We’re not looking past
them, because any game is going to be a good game, but at the same
time we’re working on things to improve on for the end of the
season.”
Even though the Bruins sport a healthy scoring average ““
better than 12 goals per game ““ Krikorian and his players
know that there is much room for improvement. They’ve made it
clear that they intend to make those improvements now so that
they’ll be ready later in the season.
“There are definitely things we need to work on,”
Rulon said. “Definitely our 6-on-5 and our 5-on-6 defense are
things we need to improve.”
Krikorian agrees. He was disappointed by the fact that the
Bruins only converted one out of 10 man-advantage opportunities
last Sunday against USC, and has made execution of the power play a
point of emphasis this week in practice.
And just as the team did with their games last week, Krikorian
says they will use the upcoming games as a barometer for how well
the Bruins are playing.
“You can practice as much as you want, but the truth
really comes out in games, and that’s when you get to see
what your deficiencies are,” he said. “We’re not
going to solve them in a week’s time. We’re going to
solve them over the course of the year. The season’s a
marathon, not a sprint.”