Under the pressures of both travel and fatigue, the women’s water polo team has endured some growing pains.
Last Saturday, UCLA (15-1) struggled in a 15-9 victory at Arizona State, and the next day, the team held on to beat UCSB at home despite being outscored 5-2 in the final quarter.
The No. 2 Bruins will have to overcome another weekend of travel in order to reverse the trend. Today they face No. 14 Long Beach State at Sunset Recreation Center, and Friday they will travel to San Diego to battle unranked UC San Diego.
It marks the second straight weekend in which the Bruins have faced sub-.500 opponents, something that has worried head coach Adam Krikorian.
“I feel like some teams we play roll over before the game’s even started,” Krikorian said.
Krikorian and his team were clearly not pleased with their last two wins. Their ineffective set offense and inconsistent defense were significant concerns.
“We did really well in the first two quarters (defensively), but we let down at the end of the third and the fourth,” senior Kelly Rulon said. “We need to have a consistent game.”
Kelly and her sister, freshman Katie Rulon, made their mark on the Bruins last contest, as Kelly scored her 200th career goal and Katie scored five of her own in the game.
Today they will face another set of dominant sisters, Marina and Cecilia Canetti. Both the freshman Cecilia and senior Marina have scored 21 goals this season, and are tied for the lead on the Long Beach State team.
The 49ers have a third scorer in the top twenty of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, senior Christina Wensman. The Long Beach attack is averaging over nine goals per game and may be a good test for the UCLA defense.
Friday will force the Bruins to once again overcome endurance issues, as they must travel after the Thursday game and play in San Diego 24 hours later.
It will also be an opportunity for the Bruin reserves to redeem themselves after a poor performance Sunday. When Krikorian took out the starters in the fourth quarter against UCSB, fearing fatigue, the second unit allowed four goals in just four minutes.
Despite a stellar record and an average of over 14 goals per game, the Bruins still see flaws. The weekend should be another step in the bolstering of a UCLA team that has a chance at a national title.
The team has just two games after this weekend before matchups versus No. 3 USC and No. 1 Stanford. The top-ranked Cardinal is the only team to defeat the Bruins this season.
“It was frustrating this weekend because I thought we had a good week of practicing and our defense looked good,” senior Kacy Kunkel said.
“You always want to convert what you do during the week into your games and we just didn’t do it. I think we’re going to get it (this weekend).”
With reports from Lauren Hartwick, Bruin Sports contributor.