The rain fell down with a vengeance on the dedicated fans and coaches at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on Thursday afternoon as they watched the No. 1 Bruins beat No. 4 Hawai’i 16-7 in MPSF competition.
The UCLA women’s water polo team dominated the Rainbow Wahine from the start, despite the weather. Just one minute and 15 seconds into the match, there were already two Bruin goals on the board. At the half the score was 11-3 in favor of the Bruins.
To the frustration of all present, the game hosted an extended halftime due to a power outage that silenced the announcer and killed the scoreboard. After a short time power was restored and the game commenced.
By the second half, the Bruins had lost their offensive edge, scoring only five goals compared to the 11 in the first half. Hawai’i, on the flip side, managed to step up its offense, but was ultimately unable to come back from the deficit created by UCLA in the first half and the game ended with a final score of 16-7 and a second power outage.
Top scorers of the afternoon were junior Jillian Kraus and sophomore Katie Rulon with four goals apiece, sophomore Tanya Gandy with three goals, and senior Molly Cahill with two goals.
Despite the victory, coach Adam Krikorian was less than overjoyed with his team’s performance.
“We didn’t play very well,” Krikorian said. “I know we won pretty handily, but that’s not indicative of how we played. I wasn’t very pleased with our execution.”
His players were in agreement concerning their performance.
“I think we could have had a little more intensity throughout the whole game,” junior Jenna Murphy said. “It’s a little difficult coming out on a school day, but that’s not an excuse.”
Following Thursday’s victory, the team looks forward to better weather and more victories this weekend at the UC Irvine Tournament at UC Irvine. The Bruins play their first game against an unranked Santa Clara team Saturday morning, allowing them to look ahead to what possible opponents they could face that weekend.
“Our first two games on Saturday are against a probably overmatched Santa Clara team, but I think we’ll have a tough second game on Saturday when we play the winner of UC Irvine and San Diego State,” Krikorian said.
“Both of those are solid teams that do a good job of competing. Then we’ll hopefully have a chance to play Stanford or USC the next day.”
“I’m really excited about this weekend,” Murphy said. “It should be really fun seeing all the teams again now that we’ve had another month to train.”
Through the rain, wind and faulty scoreboards that plagued Thursday’s game, the UCLA women’s water polo team has proven it can perform no matter the condition as the Bruins look forward to this weekend’s tournament.