Following a UCLA water polo tradition, the freshmen of the women’s water polo team provided halftime entertainment during Friday night’s men’s game.
The seven highly touted freshmen had the crowd energized, dancing to a medley that included everything from Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” to YouTube sensation “Gangnam Style.”
But it was the team in the water that stole the show.
Playing the highest-ranked opponent it had faced at home all season, No. 2 UCLA (24-2, 6-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) did not disappoint, delivering a 9-5 victory over No. 3 Stanford.
An emotionally charged crowd at Spieker Aquatics Center and strong talent on both ends of the pool gave the matchup a postseason feel.
Postseason action, however, does not come without nerves, and the Bruins were tight and conservative early on. They were lucky enough, however, to hold the Cardinal (14-5, 2-3) to a 2-2 tie with one quarter in the books, thanks in great part to the efforts of redshirt senior goalkeeper Matt Rapacz.
“Both teams were playing a little hesitant early on,” coach Adam Wright said. “You’re not seeing your best water polo, but in those situations you’ve got to stay defensively tough and I think we did that.”
Much of the game was a battle for position at two-meter, and for the most part, UCLA capitalized on effective play in the trenches, earning seven exclusions as a team and converting all but two six-on-five opportunities.
“I think any time you go into a game against Stanford, with the size of the guards they have, you can expect a good, physical game,” said junior defender Chris Wendt. “It’s kind of what we expected, but it’s good to get us ready for these last couple weeks.”
Over the span of a 5-2 swing to close out the game, the Bruins often found themselves in the right place at the right time, scoring a number of second-chance opportunities during the game’s final two quarters of play.
“Sometimes the ball bounces your way, but I thought we created nice opportunities,” Wright said. “It wasn’t like those shots were just thrown up, we had open looks and it hit the bar and we happened to be in the right spots.”
On Sunday, UCLA was victorious over No. 7 Pacific, 13-10, in its penultimate MPSF regular season road game. The additional weekend conference win guarantees the team no worse than the No. 2 seed in the MPSF Tournament, which begins next Friday.
Still, UCLA knows an even bigger test, in the form of a road game at No. 1 USC, is only a few days away, leaving little time for the Bruins to be satisfied.
“(The Stanford win) gives us the confidence to be able to work hard in the coming week of practice, but in no way does it boost our egos,” sophomore attacker Paul Reynolds said Friday. “We just need to keep our noses to the grindstone and continue to be a blue-collar, hard-working team.”