Saturdays are quiet on the Hill. Students are either hanging out
in their rooms or are off campus doing this, that or the other.
Saturdays are usually quiet ““ and then there was water
polo.
I stumbled out of bed to eat brunch and figured I’d go
check out the women’s water polo game against Stanford. To
me, as a Berkeley kid, there is nothing better than beating
Stanford. Nothing. So I went to see the tree get cut down, assuming
there would be a modest crowd around me. I was wrong.
It was packed. Families, students and loud fans from both sides
filled up Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. Every seat in the
bleachers was taken, as was the space between them, and much of the
area around the pool was dyed blue or red with fans. I squeezed
into the standing-room-only area between the bleachers to watch the
game already in progress.
The women in the pool were battling hard, tearing at each other,
pulling each other’s arms, and fighting for every inch. And
the fans were just as intense as the players. The crowd erupted
after every goal. When Stanford coach John Tanner got a yellow
card, the fan next to me shouted, “Watch out, the next one is
going to be the color of your shirt!”
The people crowded around the pool were seeing red, and not just
in the form of Stanford sweatshirts. The energy buzzing around the
pool seemed more fitting for a blue-chip sport such as football or
basketball. However, on Senior Day, a sunny Saturday afternoon in
April, these women were the ones on the marquis with their names in
lights. For the final home game of the year, the main stage was set
for the blue and gold to throw the Stanford tree into the wood
chipper.
No matter what the sport, there are always many coaches on
either side. There is the head coach, and then there are the fans
who shout instructions to the players and chastise the ref on every
call. I seemed to be in the middle of the unpaid “assistant
coaches” section.
I was standing in front of an older man in powder blue, who was
shouting out passes and chattering about how the team was missing
too many shots in the close game. Nonetheless, UCLA had a 4-2 lead
at halftime.
For the start of the second half I chose a seat on the ground in
front of one of the bleachers. Too close to the Stanford section. A
guy who looked like a recent Stanford alumnus and who seemed to
know a lot about the sport was watching UCLA coach Adam Krikorian
strategize with the team on his dry-erase board during the
time-outs and trying to tell the Stanford players what to watch out
for.
To the dismay of half the fans in attendance, the Cardinal
battled back and even led by one goal with under a minute left in
the game. UCLA had one shot left to tie up the game.
I could feel my heart go up. I was nervously fiddling with a
piece of my sock. In a moment of self awareness, I suddenly
realized how invested I’d become in the women’s water
polo game. They had to win.
With 12.6 seconds left, Jillian Kraus scored to tie it up at
seven apiece. The game went into overtime. In overtime, UCLA got a
small lead and kept it.
They had to win, and they delivered. The entire UCLA
players’ bench leaped up. The entire UCLA fan section
applauded. It’s not just the blue-chip sports that are
capable of putting on an incredibly exciting show.
That game went down as one of the most fun to watch that
I’ve seen in Westwood ““ in any sport. Saturdays on the
Hill are generally quiet. Well, not last week if you were anywhere
near Sunset Rec.
E-mail Gordon at bgordon@media.ucla.edu.