After narrowly losing Saturday’s game against top-ranked
USC in overtime, the UCLA men’s water polo team has more than
a few things to be proud of.
They survived a mid-game, and possibly mid-season, gut check by
climbing back after trailing 6-3 early in the third quarter. In
USC’s packed McDonald’s Swim Center, they battled to
take the lead with less than three minutes remaining in the game.
Pushing the defending national champions to a third overtime period
and running the game into sudden death, the Bruins came as close to
upending the Trojans as anyone has during USC’s current
35-game winning streak.
Moral victories aside, the game was still a tough loss to a
crosstown conference rival. And that means that no matter how close
the 35th game in that streak was, it still goes down as a loss for
UCLA. But as the Bruins move on to Loyola Marymount University this
Saturday for game two of their current six-game road trip,
it’s a loss they can learn from.
“I think we’re getting better,” coach Adam
Krikorian said. “The ultimate goal is to be at our best at
the end of the year. I think the more games that we get under our
belt and the better that we play in practice, the more comfortable
and confident we’re going to feel at the beginning of games,
and that’s going to help us.”
Those beginnings of games have been something of a concern for
the Bruins recently. In Saturday’s game and in last
weekend’s loss to second-ranked California, UCLA came out
flat and fell behind early. With a series of tough road games
coming up, including a rematch with the Golden Bears at Berkeley,
it’s something the Bruins will need to improve on.
“We need to start playing our best water polo from the
first quarter on,” said redshirt senior defender Brad
Greiner. “If we can stop the first couple of goals in the
first quarter, we can be in much better shape as the game goes
on.”
Although Krikorian says the Bruins will be working on some
high-pressure situations in practice this week to prepare for
playing in hostile environments, he believes the most important
preparation has been the games they’ve already played.
“The experience this past weekend was intense and the
experience (two weeks ago) at San Diego was intense, and I think
we’re becoming more and more comfortable with it,” he
said. “We’re going to need to play with comfort and
confidence when we go (on the road), so I think the more we
experience it the better off we’re going to be.”
Overall, Krikorian’s feeling about his team at this point
in the season is more or less in line with the implications of
Saturday’s game: The future is promising, but there’s
room for improvement.
“The general theme is we’re getting better, and
we’re getting better in all the areas we need to,”
Krikorian said. “I feel good about where we are right now, as
long as we continue to progress as the season goes on.”
GOALIE WATCH: Following his strong performance
at the SoCal Tournament, redshirt freshman Chay Lapin once again
started in goal against USC, tallying nine saves in a losing
effort. Krikorian was pleased with Lapin’s performance and
acknowledged that he has an edge over redshirt senior Will
Didinger, but so far has declined to commit about a definitive
starter. “Chay’s the leader going in and we’re
going to see how practice goes this week,” he said.
“Probably by Thursday we’ll decide who the starter is
for Saturday. We’ll see.”