UCLA women’s water polo finally overcame No. 1 Stanford to claim the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championship Sunday afternoon in Tempe, Ariz., winning with a score of 9-3.
The Stanford Cardinal plagued the Bruins throughout the 2007 season, defeating them in late February at the Irvine Invitational Tournament and taking the No. 1 position from the Bruins. All that changed Sunday as the Bruins put aside the past and met the Cardinal head-on to win by a large deficit.
UCLA was out of the gates right away, scoring five goals in the first half alone and holding Stanford to just one. The Cardinal were never able to catch up, as the Bruins continued to score in the second half as well as maintain an impermeable defense led by senior goalkeeper Emily Feher, who racked up eight saves.
Her fellow seniors also stepped up in their last game of MPSF play before the NCAA Championships, playing with the skill and conditioning Bruin fans have come to expect from this elite group. Kelly Rulon totaled four goals along with senior Molly Cahill’s one. Junior Courtney Mathewson scored two, and sophomores Tanya Gandy and Katie Rulon had one goal apiece.
“I think (the win) was a combination of a couple things,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “We played better position defense and were able to execute a little better than we had the past two times. … I just want to recognize the whole team for their defensive efforts.”
Not only does the win return UCLA to the No. 1 position in the MPSF, it also gives the Bruins their sixth MPSF title in the 12 years the tournament has been held. The Bruins also take credit for shattering the Cardinal’s 22-game winning streak.
In their first game of the tournament on Friday, the No. 2 Bruins set the tone for the tournament by overpowering the No. 10 Long Beach State 49ers. With a final score of 17-5, the Bruins proved that they were going to take their stay in Arizona seriously and came away with a victory in the quarterfinals.
“We were surprised to play Long Beach State in the first place, but they pulled off a surprising upset against (No. 7) Cal,” Krikorian said.
Saturday saw another victory for the Bruins in the semifinals of the MPSF tournament. Bringing the crosstown rivalry with them to Arizona, the Bruins and No. 3 USC battled to a 10-9 victory for UCLA. Even the change in state could not influence the consistency of the rivalry’s history of games, ending in favor of UCLA by a single point.
“The girls played well,” Krikorian said. “We got up on them early and because of that, were able to get an early lead on them and hold it well.”
The game remained close throughout, the first half ending with a slight favor for the Bruins, who had scored seven goals to the Trojans’ five. The second half saw an increase in the USC offensive drive, as they outscored the Bruins by scoring four goals to UCLA’s three. The offensive boost proved to be too little too late, and they fell to the Bruins for the fourth time this season by a single point.
With two important victories under their belts against USC and Stanford, along with a conference title, the Bruins now look forward to the NCAA Championships to be held May 11-13 in Los Alamitos.
Seeding for the tournament will be announced Monday, with the Bruins expecting close competition.
“We are going to have to do this again in two weeks,” Krikorian said. “We have three more games left in the season; naturally we want to go 3-0, but we know that to beat Stanford again 9-3 is unrealistic.
“You’re always learning any time you play a team. You learn a little bit more about their players and what we have to do be successful against them; at the same time they are learning about us and will come back with more knowledge about us.”