The UCLA men’s water polo team will once again face UC San Diego in Triton territory tonight.
In early September, the Bruins traveled to San Diego to compete in the Triton Invitational, defeating UCSD 16-6. However, time has passed and both teams have undoubtedly grown since then.
“We know based on last week we understand that we’re going to see everyone’s best game,” said coach Adam Wright. “We know (UCSD) is a team that’s fighting every year to go to the NCAA (championship).”
In their last matchup against the Tritons, junior attacker Daniel Lenhart and freshman attacker Lovre Milos completed hat tricks and want to bring the same intensity to this game, Lenhart said.
Following last week’s unsettling performance against Pepperdine, Wright is hoping UCLA can get into the mindset of moving forward, despite the team winning that game.
Specifically in the Pepperdine game, Wright noted that UCLA had trouble transitioning from one play to the next and its counterattack was lacking.
“We’ve been working hard on our transition game a lot,” said freshman attacker Ryder Roberts. “Hopefully our counter-structure is really good and maybe we can stop doing counterattack drills for hours.”
Wright focused on this aspect during practice.
“If we made a bad play, will we let that affect us or can we forget about it and move on?” he said.
Wright wants the team to use last week’s game to learn to move forward and quickly forget about past lapses.
In their second week at the top of the rankings, the Bruins are in a comfortable position but are not using that to slack off, as Lenhart explained that they have been working on new plays.
“It’s a new play we’re working on … a trick attack,” he said. “So maybe we will get to implement that (tonight).”
The Bruins will be tested, as this weekend marks the first of seven games on the road.
“This weekend’s game is an excellent test to see if we keep progressing as a team,” Roberts said. “Hopefully we can come out and show everyone that we deserve to be in the No. 1 spot.”