Water polo’s familiar No. 3 rank only a starting point

As the UCLA men’s water polo team begins to navigate their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference schedule, their outlook for the season might best be described as promising.

The Bruins began the season in a frustratingly familiar position: third in the nation, behind No. 1 USC and No. 2 California. The team finished third behind the Trojans and Golden Bears in the polls last year, and also placed third in the MPSF season-ending tournament. Only the top two teams advanced to the NCAA tournament.

So far this season, the Bruins’ play has matched their ranking.

Heading into last Saturday’s MPSF conference game against No. 5 UC Irvine, the Bruins had put together a 7-1 record, including wins over No. 6 Pepperdine and No. 4 Stanford at the NorCal Tournament. The Bruins’ one loss? At the hands of Cal, 10-8, on Sept. 16 in the NorCal semi-finals.

Still, proving worthy of the country’s No. 3 ranking is nothing to scoff at, and for now coach Adam Krikorian likes the position his team is in heading into the rest of the season.

“I feel good about our team,” he said. “Obviously, we’re not where Cal and USC are. I think they’re maybe just a notch better right now.”

Perhaps the most important thing the Bruins will need if they intend to catch either of those teams is experience. The Bruins are incorporating a number of younger players into larger roles this season, and while that means there is a lot of potential, it also could lead to some growing pains.

“This team’s got a lot of room to improve,” Krikorian said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys playing for the first time, and some guys that haven’t even been playing water polo for that long. So I think we’re going to get a lot better over the course of the season. Hopefully by the end, we can be right there with the top teams.”

Among the team’s younger players expected to make significant contributions are redshirt sophomores Scott Swanson, Scott Davidson, Chay Lapin, and sophomore Kevin Kuga.

The most important of those may be Lapin, the Bruins’ goalie. Fortunately he’s fairly experienced, having seen significant playing time last year, even starting ahead of then-senior Will Didinger during much of the latter half of the season.

Lapin also spent time this past summer playing with the U.S. Junior National team in Europe, where he was voted the outstanding goalkeeper of the Tatras Cup in July. He and Davidson also took time off from the Bruins’ practice schedule to play for the U.S. at the FINA World Junior Championships in August.

“It was really fun, it was real good experience,” Lapin said of his time with the national team. “It was one of the best summers of international water polo I’ve had. Overall, from every national team since 15-and-under to now, I’ve learned a lot of things. There’s a lot that’s different, it’s a much faster pace, and you’re playing with some of the best players in the world.”

Although Lapin and the rest of the younger Bruins will be counted on, this is not to say that UCLA is completely lacking in experience. The roster contains five seniors, as well as redshirt junior Krsto Sbutega, who was a third-team All-American last year. So there’s not really pressure on any one player to step in and be the team’s leader.

“Personally, I try and let my play do all of the talking, and try and show that I’m doing it in the water rather than out of the water,” redshirt senior Justin Johnson said. “But of course I’m going to try and be a little more vocal (being a senior).”

Regardless of age or year, Krikorian is seeing promise in his team right now, though he’s far from satisfied, and at the moment he wants to see all of his players improve in, well, pretty much everything.

“We can get better in all areas,” he said. “There’s not one thing that we’re focusing on right now. It’s more just being aware of the whole package and getting better across the board.”

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