Life wasn’t all bad for UCLA sports these past few days.
The fourth-ranked men’s water polo team picked up a pair of wins over the weekend, defeating No. 6 UC Irvine 12-5 in Irvine on Friday night, and then hammering No. 20 Brown 16-4 at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center on Saturday afternoon.
After needing sudden-victory overtime to defeat UCI in a non-conference game in Westwood two weeks ago, the Bruins were eager to get another shot at the Anteaters, this time in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference match. And after being upset by Stanford, 7-6, in their conference opener last weekend, the Bruins badly needed a MPSF win.
They got one, and in a surprisingly comfortable fashion.
“We just wanted to really come out strong and show that we are a better team than how we played at Stanford,” senior Justin Johnson said. “I think we did that. Especially with how poor we played against UCI last time, we kind of wanted to redeem ourselves a little bit.”
While the Bruins struggled against the Anteaters in the first quarter, falling behind 3-1, they came roaring back in the second, scoring six straight times before UCI scored again. The Bruins went into halftime with an 8-4 lead, then blanked UCI 3-0 in the third to put the game out of reach.
Johnson had three goals to lead a balanced attack that saw nine different Bruins score.
But maybe the biggest difference for UCLA was its defense. After allowing seven goals to the Anteaters’ Tim Hutten in their first game, the Bruins held him scoreless in the second. And overall, the Bruin 2-meter defenders did a much better job limiting UCI’s interior players.
“Obviously we did a much better job on their best player,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “It was embarrassing the first time, but I was very proud of the guys (on Friday). Our defenders, and just the overall collective effort, were much better.”
Another question for the Bruins after the Stanford loss was, according to Krikorian, exactly how much “hunger” his team had. For now, he can consider that question answered.
“I wanted to make sure that if we’re going to get beat this year, it’s not going to be because the other teams are a little bit more hungry than us, and we kind of felt like that was the case (against Stanford),” Krikorian said. “We wanted to make sure coming into Friday’s game that we were as hungry, if not hungrier, than our opposition. I think that brought out the right attitude.”
The Bruins had no trouble carrying that attitude into their game on Saturday. Playing at the Rose Bowl just hours before the football team would hand Notre Dame their first win of the season, the water polo team enjoyed an unusually large crowd and a festive game-day atmosphere.
And the Bruins didn’t disappoint against the overmatched Bears, quickly building a large enough lead so that Krikorian could play mostly reserve players and rest many of his starters after the first quarter.
“(Saturday’s) game was an opportunity where we could get the guys, who typically don’t get a chance to play, their opportunity to show what they can do,” he said. “Really, it’s left up to the guys who start the game to execute early so that their teammates get an opportunity to play.
“That’s a little bit of a motivation. You play to win, but more than anything you also play for your teammates. There’s a lot of love between these guys.”
One younger player who excelled in his expanded role was redshirt freshman Jacob Murphy, who lead the Bruins with a career-high three goals. After the game, Murphy credited his older teammates for putting him and the other reserves in a position to succeed, especially in front of the Rose Bowl crowd.
“I was just happy to be out there,” he said. “Obviously, the older guys did a good job of making it so I could actually get into the game and get some playing time.
“I’m glad I had my debut here.”