M. WATER POLO Today, 3 p.m. v. Long Beach State
Sunset Rec Sunday, 1 p.m. v. UC Irvine Sunset Rec
The UCLA men’s water polo team will wrap up its regular
season this weekend with home games against Long Beach State today
and UC Irvine on Sunday.
The games come after six straight road games for the Bruins, and
today’s contest against Long Beach will be the first home
game for UCLA since a 10-8 win over Stanford at the Rose Bowl
Aquatics Center on Sept. 30
With the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament coming up
Thanksgiving weekend, these two games will be the last chance for
the Bruins to improve while still having the regular season’s
margin for error. After this weekend, the third-ranked Bruins will
likely have to win the MPSF tournament outright to secure a berth
to the NCAA Tournament, in which only four teams compete.
With that in mind, the Bruins are focused.
“We’re mostly just fine-tuning some things,”
coach Adam Krikorian said. “Working on our six-on-five, our
five-on-six. The guys are just anxious to play, to be
honest.”
The Bruins will also have added motivation from their home
crowd. The Bruins have already played five road conference games,
but due to an unbalanced schedule, this weekend will mark only
their second and third home contests. After spending so much time
on the road, the Bruins are looking forward to it.
“I’m excited,” senior attacker Logan Powell
said. “I think Sunset Rec. is one of the coolest places to
play in (the NCAA) for sure, and I was bummed that we didn’t
get that many games here this year.”
Krikorian added that the home atmosphere should be especially
rewarding for the team’s seniors, who on Sunday will be
playing in their last home game as Bruins.
“I think (the team) will have more of a renewed sense of
energy playing here at home, especially the older guys, the seniors
in particular,” he said. “This is their last two
chances to play at home. I think it’ll feel good and be good
for us, mentally and morale-wise.”
But this is not to say that the team is relaxed heading into the
weekend. While UCLA defeated both 12th-ranked Long Beach State and
11th-ranked UC Irvine earlier in the year, recent results suggest
the teams have improved significantly since then.
Both Long Beach State and UCI are coming off of major upset
wins, over No. 7 Loyola Marymount and No. 4 Stanford, respectively.
The teams will be looking to improve their seeding heading into the
MPSF tournament.
“From the looks of it, both teams have improved
tremendously since the beginning of the year,” Krikorian
said. “Irvine’s coming off of probably their biggest
win of the year, and Long Beach is getting better and better. I
think both teams are going to be good tests for us. If we
don’t come out ready to play, then we’ll be in for a
dogfight.”