When the UCLA men’s water polo team sets foot in Santa Barbara this weekend, it will face a lot of familiar faces.
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams will meet for the second time in three weeks at the SoCal tournament in Santa Barbara this weekend.
While there is a chance that UCLA will end up in a rematch with USC, to whom they lost in the finals of the NorCal tournament just two weekends ago, the Bruins are more focused on immediate opponents.
“These two tournaments are important, and there’s only two weeks in between. You can make some adjustments, but you can’t get ahead of yourself,” said coach Adam Wright.
When the Bruins played the Loyola Marymount Lions at Spieker last weekend, they won 16-8. While UCLA took the W, its defense left a little to be desired.
It is possible that the Bruins could face the Lions early on in the tournament, giving them an immediate reason to boost up their defense.
“We do know that last time we played LMU we gave up eight goals, which is something we don’t accept. It’s too many,” Wright said.
This is the last of the tournaments and invitationals that UCLA will play this year. They litter the first half of the season, leading into a second half in which teams play one or two games a week.
“It’s important to get ready for the grind at the end of the season … if we can do things in four games when we’re tired, we can do them when we have two games in the weekend,” said senior attacker Griffin White.
When UCLA travels to Santa Barbara, it will face lofty competition from within the conference.
Oftentimes, the early games the team plays against Stanford, California or USC have an effect on the end of its season.
“It’s hard, you don’t want to fall behind any of those teams because it’s hard to come back from it,” said senior attacker Bret Lathrope. “… If you lose to any one of those teams early it can cost you.”
With the two tournaments so close together, Wright and the Bruins are attempting to get better with each tournament they play.
“We have to look at our mistakes from the past … the main thing we are trying to do is get better at the things we didn’t do well at the NorCal, and if we do that, it’s a step in the right direction,” Wright said.