This Saturday, the No. 2 UCLA men’s water polo team travels to La Jolla to face the No. 14 UC San Diego Tritons. And their fans.
The biggest question this Saturday night will be how the Bruins will respond to a large, noisy, spirited Triton crowd. Last year when UCLA traveled to La Jolla, the Tritons greeted the Bruins with a record-breaking water polo attendance of 1,740 fans, enough to fill every inch of UCSD’s Canyonview Aquatics Center.
“Their crowd was phenomenal,” coach Adam Krikorian said after last year’s game. “It’s one thing having 1,800 people, and it’s another thing having 1,800 people screaming the entire time. It was the second-loudest water polo crowd I have ever seen, and the first-loudest was when we played Stanford at Stanford in the championship game of 2004. This crowd rivaled that, and that’s huge.”
Ultimately, the Bruins succumbed to the noise and the Tritons, slackening up their defense and losing the game 13-12 in the final minute of the fourth quarter, much to the delight of the deafening UC San Diego fans. The following week, the Bruins played one of their finest games of the season and rebounded to crush the Tritons in the SoCal Tournament 12-3, held in Long Beach, quite a distance from UC San Diego’s passionate fans, nicknamed the “Triton Tide.”
After last year’s wild ride against UCSD, the Bruins are understandably unsure of what to expect from this year’s Triton team. But regardless of last year’s ending scores and the current MPSF rankings, the Bruins are expecting a challenge, from both the team and the fans.
“I don’t know exactly (what to expect,)” Krikorian said. “Their coaches prepare them very well and they’re always ready. They play with a lot of emotion, especially at home. We found that early last season. That is probably the most difficult place to play in the country. They always have a huge crowd in there.”
If nothing else, the Bruins will take with them to La Jolla the confidence won in last Sunday’s victory over No. 1 USC.
“It’s been big for our guys. I think it took a little weight off our shoulders because we haven’t had a big win like that in a while,” Krikorian said. “The key is to carry that confidence into practice and try to carry it into the game on Saturday and the rest of the year.”