As the rankings stood heading into the SoCal Tournament in Santa Barbara, it seemed as though the UCLA men’s water polo team was in for a rematch with top-ranked USC.
The Bruins fell to the Trojans just two weeks ago in the finals of the NorCal tournament. The teams have been ranked No. 1 and 2 for the whole season.
To the Bruins’ disappointment, that rematch never took place, as No. 2 UCLA fell to No. 6 UC Santa Barbara 11-10 in the semifinals of the tournament.
UCLA (15-2) earned a semifinal match against UCSB (12-3) after handily winning its two Saturday games against No. 17 Santa Clara and No. 7 Pepperdine.
However, the Bruins were in for a cruel awakening on Sunday, trailing the Gauchos 8-4 at the end of the first half.
Though UCLA would battle back to a draw to close out the third quarter, UCSB proved to be more clutch down the stretch, winning by one goal.
The loss was uncharacteristic for the Bruins, who haven’t lost to the Gauchos, a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponent, in nearly 20 years.
The fact that UC Santa Barbara was even matched up in the semifinal against UCLA was a surprise in itself. The Gauchos took down No. 3 Stanford in their quarterfinal match.
UCLA coach Adam Wright said he believes UCSB’s underdog run caught the Bruins off guard.
“It was a pretty interesting week in water polo,” Wright said.
“(UC) Irvine and Santa Barbara jumped up from the NorCal Tournament when they both made it into the semifinals. The easy thing to do when something happens like that is to let your mind slip and not come in mentally prepared and I really believe that affected us.
In its only two losses this season, UCLA has cited mistakes in its transition defense, leading to easy goals for opponents. Against UCSB, defending after changes in possession proved to be an issue again.
“Counter-attack defense was what hurt us this weekend against Santa Barbara,” said senior utility Josh Samuels. “We gave up a lot of counter goals and when we played Cal at the NorCal Invitational two weeks ago, that was an issue for us.”
Following Sunday’s loss to the Gauchos, UCLA played in the third-place game and defeated No. 5 UC Irvine 14-8. Sophomore attacker Paul Reynolds chipped in four goals in a win that will provide UCLA with some momentum as it begins MPSF play against No. 4 Cal next Saturday.
“Well, we ended up coming back and having a decent game against Irvine, which shows our resilience,” said junior defender Chris Wendt. “Even though we screwed up in the morning, we were able to come back and play a good game.”