The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation announced the results of its preseason coaches’ poll last Thursday. Those results placed the UCLA men’s water polo team in familiar territory.
Third.
After finishing third behind California and USC in both last year’s MPSF tournament and the season-ending coaches’ poll, the Bruins again find themselves looking up at the No. 1 ranked Trojans and the No. 2 Golden Bears.
UCLA scored 47 points in the poll, with one first-place vote. USC had 59 to go with five first-place votes, while Cal, last year’s NCAA champions, had 53 total points and two first-place votes. The Bruins were also ranked third in last year’s preseason poll.
As he begins to prepare his team for the coming season, UCLA coach Adam Krikorian isn’t putting very much stock in the poll’s results. But for whatever they’re worth, he believes those results are relatively fair.
“I think the first two teams in the poll are fairly accurate,” he said. “Either one of them could go one or two.
“As for us being third, I think it’s a possibility. I think the teams ranked number three through seven are all right there. I think all those teams are pretty much interchangeable.”
If the Bruins are to distinguish themselves from the rest of that group, one issue that will have to be addressed is finding new leaders to replace the seven seniors who graduated last year. Fortunately, UCLA will return five new seniors and three Bruins who earned All-American consideration: junior Krsto Sbutega, who was voted to the third team, and senior center Marco Santos and sophomore goalie Chay Lapin, who received honorable mention.
Krikorian, however, dismissed the notion that there’s any pressure on any specific player to step in and assume the leadership role.
“All of our seniors are going to have to provide some kind of leadership, whether that’s leading by example, playing with a sense of urgency, or playing with intelligence,” he said.
“We also have Sbutega, who’s a very talented and very intelligent player, and Lapin, our goalie. Then there’s (sophomore attackers) Scott Davidson and Scott Swanson who we may be looking to play big roles, so it’s not just the older guys. This could be the most well-balanced team of any that I’ve coached, and we’re going to spread the leadership role around.”
UCLA will also welcome a promising young group of incoming freshmen, most notably two time high school All-American utility player Ben Hohl and centers Brett Hays and Matt Preciado.
Although it’s still to early to tell which freshmen will play this year and which will redshirt, Krikorian has said that all three will have a chance to earn a place on the active roster.
“Hohl is a very talented kid, and he’s done a nice job so far,” he said. “He’s going to get every opportunity to come in and see if he can play right away.
“Hays and Preciado are two big centers we also have our eyes on. They might not quite have quite the opportunity (as Hohl) to step in right away, but they’ll have a chance. Obviously, it’s still too early to say who’ll redshirt and who’ll play.”
BRUINS GONE NATIONAL: Lapin and Davidson will miss part of training camp to compete with the U.S. junior national team at the FINA Junior World Championships in Los Alamitos. The U.S. began play Saturday night against Jamaica. The tournament runs throughout the week and ends with the championship match next Sunday.
Lapin and Davidson have both previously played with the junior national team this summer. Both joined the team for two weeks of training in Europe and helped Team USA to a second-place finish at the Tatras Cup in Slovakia and a fourth-place finish at the Len Tournament in Croatia.
Lapin was named the outstanding goalkeeper of the Tatras Cup, and tallied 15 saves in the tournament final loss to Croatia.