Saturday marks the beginning of the end for the 2006 water polo
season as the No. 3 UCLA women’s water polo team heads into
its toughest leg of play, starting with a special evening game
Saturday.
The No. 3 Bruins (21-2) will travel across town to face the
top-ranked Trojans on Saturday at the McDonald’s Swim Stadium
with a start time of 5 p.m. The Trojans are undefeated in play this
season with a 21 game winning streak.
With only two losses this season, and both in tournament play,
the Bruins are poised to snap the Trojans’ streak, especially
with their dominating defense as of late.
“We have a good understanding of how we want to play
defensively,” UCLA coach Adam Krikorian said. “We take
a lot of pride in making things difficult for other teams. Holding
teams to low scoring is a personal thing for the girls and that
shows.”
With the Trojans scoring 10 goals in their win over the Bruins
at the Stanford Invitational, UCLA needs to make certain to stop
the Trojan offense as its offensive production will not come as
easily as in other games.
“We definitely cannot give up 10 goals again,”
Krikorian said. “Our offense tends to feed off the momentum
and opportunities created by the defense, so we need to make sure
we have that on Saturday.”
In their two losses this season, the Bruins ran into the most
trouble offensively as they were unable to answer the
fourth-quarter goals by both USC and No. 2 Stanford. In both
tournaments, the Bruins failed to win the championship game.
Krikorian is well aware of the offensive weaknesses and has
worked with the team to dramatically improve its scoring
abilities.
“We are more organized in the water, we are spacing much
better and it is making a real difference,” Krikorian said.
“Certain individuals have really stepped up and contributed
to a collective improvement offensively.”
Additionally, with the recent return of sophomore center
Brittany Rowe, UCLA will have a greater offensive depth to rely on
than previously done against ‘SC.
“We are an even better team with Brittany back,”
Krikorian said. “Things are going great with her back in
games and we really missed her. Now is the time to have her
back.”
Along with boosting their national ranking, an added incentive
to bring home the win is the annual Lexus-Gauntlet competition
between the rivals. Currently the Bruins are trailing 50-20, and a
win Saturday will bring the Bruins five points closer to closing
the gap.
SWIM-A-THON: Prior to Saturday’s game,
USC is hosting the 26th annual Swim with Mike swim-a-thon of which
UCLA has agreed to participate. The event is a fund-raiser for the
Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund. Although the
Bruins will not be swimming the 5,000 laps on Saturday before their
big game, they have tentatively scheduled the swim for sometime
next week.
“It is for a great cause,” Krikorian said.
“And will be a good experience.”