In its first exposure to some of the best competition the country had to offer, the UCLA women’s water polo team showed it is still plenty wet behind the ears. Playing at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, the No. 5 Bruins dropped a 13-3 decision on Sunday afternoon to No. 2 USC to close out an up-and-down weekend of action.
UCLA (5-3) opened the weekend with a nail-biting 4-3 defeat at the hands of No. 4 Cal, and sandwiched a pair of victories in between their two losses, a 9-8 decision over No. 3 Hawai’i Saturday evening and 7-6 victory over No. 9 Arizona State early Sunday.
Sophomore Caitlin Dement, in her first full season as the primary starter in the cage, played all four games over the course of the weekend.
It took a balanced offensive effort for the Bruins to upset the Rainbow Wahine, as UCLA got a pair of goals each from juniors Grace Reynolds and Priscilla Orozco and a single goal from five other players. Reynolds duplicated that feat the next morning against the Sun Devils. She added a single goal in the loss to the Trojans to give the California transfer 14 goals on the young season, easily the best on the team.
The loss to USC represented UCLA’s worst loss in the crosstown rivalry in more than a decade. This time around, the Trojans jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never looked back in handing the Bruins their third loss of the season. UCLA, which also fell in overtime to San Diego State at the Michigan Invitational in late January, did not register its third loss until the 14th game of the season a year ago.
Compiled by Ryan Eshoff, Bruin senior staff.