Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Garrett Danner sprung out of the cage and snuffed out a stray ball like a candle flame at the end of the third quarter in UCLA men’s water polo’s game against No. 5 California.
The team claimed an important 6-4 conference victory at home and went on to defeat Concordia 15-11 in a less vibrant, but easily won game.
All eyes were on the game against Cal, however.
After losing to USC and Stanford, the team said it needed this win against the Golden Bears. In the last game against Cal, UCLA had won by only one point: 6-5.
“Cal’s a really good team and we needed to win to put ourselves in a good position for the upcoming month, and I think we took care of business,” said freshman attacker Ryder Roberts.
Victory, however, hadn’t always been in sight. Against Cal, UCLA faced a scoreless third quarter that left the scoreboard tied at the start of the fourth quarter. Redshirt junior utility Cristiano Mirarchi said that Cal was expectedly a “quick team” with a rapid transition game.
“We should’ve closed the game a little bit earlier. We should’ve found a way to score another goal and end the game. Instead we let them come back,” Mirarchi said. “But we were capable of finding a way to win so that’s a definite positive.”
After the significant victory and a short break, UCLA moved on to face Concordia in a game that was lacking the intensity of the previous one. The Bruins said that they’ve had a constant goal – hold every team to six goals or less – yet they allowed No. 11 Concordia to score 11.
Both Roberts and Mirarchi said that UCLA “let up too much” against Concordia. But coach Adam Wright still echoed positives about the game, pointing to UCLA’s strong start. Additionally, the game featured different players who were able to gain experience against what Wright said was a quickly developing team.
UCLA (23-2, 3-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) ended Friday night with what Wright said was an emotional victory for the players and what Roberts called a “great game.”
“Holding Cal to four goals is no easy feat; they’ve got a lot of weapons,” Roberts said. “(But) we stuck to our plan and we executed.”