In its final home stand of the 2008 season, the UCLA men’s water polo team will face a full slate of three games this weekend, two of which will be against teams that rank in the top 10 of the nation.
The No. 3 Bruins (11-5, 3-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will host No. 9 UC Irvine (9-9, 0-3 MPSF) today at 3 p.m., followed by a Saturday match against Concordia University (15-11) at 9 a.m. and then finally a visit from No. 8 UC San Diego (16-9) on Sunday at 1 p.m.
UCLA will look to boost its standing with its MPSF game today, and then the Bruins will hope to gain momentum into the final stretch of the season with two nonconference matches.
“Coming off the loss from ‘SC, we’re trying to rebound and win,” redshirt freshman attacker Cullen Hennessy said. “We want to make sure to win out the rest of the year and have a good seeding at the conference tournament to have a better shot of getting into the NCAAs. We’ve been working out hard this week.”
First up this weekend is an important conference game against No. 9 UC Irvine, which is experiencing a down season relative to recent years.
“They see us as we see ‘SC,” Hennessy said. “This is their rivalry game, so I know they’re going to come in and it’s going to be a tough game. Even though it may look like they are having a down year, we still have to come out and take care of business.”
In the season opener back in September, the Bruins easily took care of UC Irvine in a 10-4 win on the road. However, the teams have not seen each other since.
“We haven’t really seen them a whole lot. There’s a little bit of an unknown that I think goes both ways,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “I think both teams are a lot different from what they were then, so I think it’s hard to really take that game and use it as a barometer for this game.”
UC Irvine is coming off a 14-5 loss to No. 2 Stanford last week. The Anteaters are led by sophomore driver Brandon Johnson, who has registered 53 goals this season and is second in the MPSF with a 2.94 scoring average.
“He shoots the ball a lot, so their offense is focused around him at the center position,” Krikorian said of Johnson. “We need to do a good job on him, there’s no question about it. We’re going to focus a lot of our effort to stop him and slow him down a bit.”
While stopping one player will be the strategy today, Sunday will be about stopping four.
UCSD has four players with 40 or more goals this season: A.J. Kotanjian with 55, Steven Donohoe with 46, Daniel Garcia with 45 and Adnan Jerkovic with 40. The balanced attack will pose a challenge for the Bruin defense.
“Every time we play them it’s a brawl,” redshirt junior attacker Scott Swanson said. “They have a tough offense and a lot of guys who can put the ball in the net. I think if we keep to our team defense, we can counter them because they’re not that fast.”
While redshirt junior goalkeeper Chay Lapin (139 saves, 9.27 saves per game) has defended the cage well for UCLA, redshirt senior attacker Krsto Sbutega commands the offense with a team-high 33 goals. He is followed by redshirt junior Scott Davidson with 21 goals.
For the team, this will most likely be its last game at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. Construction on the Spieker Aquatic Center, UCLA’s new aquatic complex, is expected to be ready by next fall. For three players, this will be their last game on campus in a Bruin cap. Sbutega, Russell Simpkins and Chris Allen will be honored Sunday on Senior Day as they bid farewell to the pool they have played at for the past five years.
“It’s senior day and these guys don’t want to lose their last game at home, so there’s going to be a lot of heart going into this last home game,” Swanson said.
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