Two weeks ago, the UCLA women’s water polo team saw its record win streak end with a narrow loss to Hawai’i. Thursday, it made sure the same team didn’t celebrate again.
The No. 4 Bruins (8-2, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) defeated the No. 3 Rainbow Wahine (6-4, 0-3 MPSF), 11-8, to avenge the 13-12 defeat in Palo Alto on Feb. 7.
“I’m proud of their effort,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “They carried over the things we talked about in practice into the game ““ as a coach, that is what you want.”
The Bruins scored first with sophomore Priscilla Orozco’s lob shot to the outer corner, the first of her three scores. The Rainbow Wahine promptly answered with three goals within a 75 second span to put them up 3-1. Both teams battled until the end of the half, with Hawai’i leading 6-5. That’s when the course of the game changed. Led by a pair of goals from senior Anne Belden, UCLA outscored Hawai’i 5-0 in the third to go ahead for good.
“We started with one goal, and tried to get momentum on our side and keep it,” Krikorian said. “The girls did a great job ““ they got more confident, played better defense, scored goals in counterattack sequences. That 5-0 run was obviously the key to the game.”
One major difference between the two games was the minimal impact of Hawai’i star Kelly Mason, who scored six against the Bruins two weeks ago, yet she went 0-for-5 on shot attempts this time around.
“One of the differences between (the two games) was we focused on defending some of their players, such as (Mason), along with keeping momentum on our side,” Orozco said.
Krikorian acknowledged the effort was one of the team’s best to date.
“We played better defense in the second half and handled end-of-quarter situations much better,” he said. “It was the first game I felt like we actually followed the game plan, and it turned out to work in our advantage.”
The win comes before a big weekend of matches for the Bruins at the UC Irvine Invitational. On Saturday morning, the team will take on Long Beach State, before facing off against either California or UC Irvine in its afternoon game. They will play two more games on Sunday to finish up what Krikorian deemed a “grueling” two-day stretch.
“The overall goal is just to get better as the tournament progresses,” Krikorian said. “Every time these girls suit up together they’re always getting better. We want to be very good on Saturday, but we want to be better on Sunday.”