The UCLA women’s water polo team cruised to victory in its first-ever match at Spieker Aquatics Center Saturday afternoon, beating Cal State Northridge 9-5 in a non-conference matchup at Dirks Pool.
Led by junior attacker Priscilla Orozco and junior defender Megan Burmeister, who each posted two goals, the No. 4 Bruins (6-3) showed tough offense from the inside and struck multiple times from out deep and never trailed against the No. 13 Matadors (7-2).
Sophomore and first-year starter Caitlin Dement saved 11 shots in the cage for the Bruins.
Orozco, playing in her first game back since suffering an eye injury that kept her out of games at the Stanford Invitational, opened the scoring at the 5:16 mark of the first quarter with a goal on advantage play.
UCLA took a 7-2 lead early in the third, and never looked back. CSUN was able to cut the lead to 7-4 with 7:24 to play in the fourth quarter, but back-to-back goals quickly erased any chances of a comeback. Orozco connected on a strike from seven meters out, and Burmeister scored on a soft lob from two meters away that caught CSUN goalkeeper Jillian Stapf off her line.
CSUN was led by sophomore Whitney Delgado, who notched three goals, all on exclusion play.
“I thought this was a good win for us,” coach Brandon Brooks said. “I thought we executed well. We took pride in finishing, which was really good. I think that this is a good win for our confidence, and I think we controlled the whole game, which is good for us.”
The Bruins begin MPSF play this weekend when they travel to Berkeley for a matchup against Cal on Saturday. Brooks said that the team can’t take too much away from this win as it begins what looks to be an extremely difficult conference schedule and has to remember the 13-3 loss it suffered to No. 2 USC last weekend.
“I think that the girls are learning well, but I think that we need to work on everything,” he said. “This game should not be a measuring stick, the loss to ‘SC has to be our measuring stick. We lost badly.”