The No. 2 UCLA men’s water polo team is making a big push into its final weekend of the regular season.
The Bruins (15-5, 5-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) have won four straight games including their recent 11-4 victory over No. 7 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
This weekend, UCLA will have a showdown with No. 5 Pepperdine (18-6, 5-2 MPSF) to round out the 2008 season. Once again, the Bruins will have a full week to prepare for only one opponent rather than preparing for the usual slate of weekend games that they have seen much of the year.
“We’re playing with a lot of intensity,” said redshirt freshman center Brett Hays. “I think we get four or five practices to prepare, so we should be ready.”
One of the critical aspects of the team’s recent success has been the focused defensive effort the past few weeks. After giving up an uncharacteristic amount of goals to several opposing teams, the Bruins have cracked down and kept the ball out of their net.
“(The key) is knowing what everybody’s role is,” Hays said. “Knowing what defense we are running and what offense they run. We have been clicking pretty well last couple weeks.”
The Bruins boast the No. 3 team defense in the conference by only allowing 6.10 goals in 20 games this season.
Redshirt junior goalkeeper Chay Lapin is fourth in the MPSF with 5.50 goals against average. Lapin has averaged 9.21 saves per game with his 175 save total for 2008.
ROAD WARRIORS: The Bruins have had a brutal schedule this season, with plenty of miles logged playing in unfriendly environments.
This season there were only seven games played at UCLA’s two home venues ““ Sunset Canyon Recreation Center and Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. The team has gone 6-1 in those games with the only loss being to No. 2 Stanford.
The tough road games included No. 1 USC and then-No. 3 California. So far this season UCLA has compiled a 5-1 record in those road games.
“One thing that has helped us out on the road is the challenge,” Hays said. “Crowds yelling at us gives us more energy. Quieting the crowd down is something we look forward to.”
Their final road game this Saturday at Pepperdine’s Malibu pool will give the Bruins a glimpse of the site for the following week’s MPSF tournament.
The success away from Westwood has helped the team move into a tie for second place in the conference at 5-2 with Stanford. Standings will determine the seedings for the MPSF tournament, which will ultimately decide who goes to the NCAA Championships.
AROUND THE MPSF: No. 1 USC continues to show why it’s the top-ranked team in the country, despite a little scare over the weekend.
The Trojans extended their perfect season to 24-0 with two wins. USC demolished UC Santa Cruz 22-2 and then escaped No. 3 Stanford 6-5.
In other close games over the weekend, No. 4 Cal squeaked by No. 10 Long Beach State 11-10 in overtime, and No. 9 UC Irvine beat No. 18 Pacific by a score of 10-9.
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