Seven UCLA players and one assistant coach were part of Team USA for the tournament, where they were hungry to face the elite international competition.
“The official way to get better at water polo is to play games, and we’re playing games against the best players in the world, and that is something that not every water polo player gets to do,” said redshirt freshman center Alec Zwaneveld.
Team USA’s fifth-place finish in the tournament came after defeating Australia and Spain in the fifth- to eighth-place bracket. An earlier loss in the quarterfinals to Italy, the team that ended up winning the tournament, knocked Team USA out of medal contention.
“It was a respectable finish. We knew that we crossed over with one of the best teams in the quarterfinal against Italy,” Zwaneveld said. “Unfortunately, we had to play them at such an early point and that led to the finish that we got.”
Despite the loss to Italy, the team is very proud of its fifth-place finish, given where Team USA has finished in the recent past.
“It was the highest finish for the USA men’s team in quite some time,” said UCLA assistant coach Dustin Litvak, who is also an assistant coach on Team USA. “Honestly speaking, I think it was about right. We were probably the fourth- or fifth-best team there. We’re competing with teams that play together year-round, for the most part, and we just don’t have that opportunity in the United States.”
Aside from playing year-round, Litvak said many of the international players are members of their country’s national team, or play professionally and are used to playing against older competition.
This puts his players at a disadvantage, since Team USA is made up of college players, rather than professionals. The UCLA portion of the under-20 squad was comprised of four incoming freshmen, two redshirt freshmen and one sophomore.
The players were quick to point out what they had learned while playing in this international tournament.
“When you’re representing your country, a lot more emotion is needed to play at this high level,” Zwaneveld said. “You always have to have in the back of your mind that you’re the best that your country has to offer in the water polo world and you have to make your country proud.”
One of the biggest changes that the players had to adjust to was the European style of play.
“European style is different in how every (referee) switches from a different country each game, how he refs the game, and you have to be able to adjust to the (refereeing) style,” said redshirt freshman goalie Garrett Danner.
These opportunities to play against such high-level competition provided an invaluable experience for the young players that could pay off during the grind of the UCLA water polo season.
“Knowing that they’ve played at the highest level against some of the best competition in the world at this age group, you can’t simulate that in practice,” Litvak said. “I think that experience will be something they can fall back on at some point in the season, when the game is close or there’s a situation where things aren’t going well.”
Zwaneveld said he believes that the experience will help them during the season and that it will give them an advantage over other teams, especially in the NCAA tournament.
“Big crowds, big venues, against great teams is a great way to prepare yourself for what the NCAA tournament has to offer,” Zwaneveld said. “If we get to the finals again, it’s going to be a very similar sort of thing.”