With just seconds left on the clock in double overtime, Jack Fellner earned an exclusion and passed the ball to Ryder Roberts, who then scored – and the crowd went berserk while the band blared its UCLA victory song at Spieker Aquatics Center Thursday night.
“I saw that there were three seconds left, and I just pulled the trigger,” said Roberts, a freshman attacker. “I couldn’t see if it went in or not, so I just turned around and looked at the crowd. They were pumped up. It was awesome.”
Fellner, the freshman attacker who played a crucial role in the final seconds of the game, could not have been more excited for the end result.
“It was really special,” he said. “I’m glad the coach trusts me enough to put me in that position, and it was pretty sweet.”
Last night, the No. 3 UCLA men’s water polo team beat No. 2 USC, breaking a double overtime 9-9 tie to end its regular season with a 10-9 win.
And the players could not have asked for a better way to end the season with the unrelenting support of the UCLA community, according to senior defender Chris Wendt, who played the last regular season game of his career.
“The crowd was unbelievable,” he said. “The band, the dancers, I mean, people were up on top of the parking structure!”
Despite the win, it was a close, chilling matchup against the crosstown rival USC Trojans, as the Bruins were unable to fully capitalize on their scoring opportunities until finding their breakout in the fourth quarter.
“Going into the fourth quarter, we knew this was it and we had to make a move then,” Wendt said. “And I think we really stepped up then, which was really good timing.”
USC maintained control throughout much of the game as it consistently answered every goal UCLA earned, keeping the score tied up until the end of the fourth quarter with a score of 8-8.
“The game was close the whole time, but we never stopped believing that we could win the game,” Roberts said.
After a scoreless overtime period, the game went into double overtime, and the steam rising from the pool only mirrored the heat rising between the two teams.
Possession after possession, stop after stop, both UCLA and USC scored and were evenly matched at 9-9 until the final play.
It was a true display of teamwork in those final moments as sophomore utility Danny McClintick got the steal, allowing Fellner to take control of the ball and the game, and giving Roberts the opportunity to score the game-winning goal.
“In this sport, there are gonna be moments where you gotta be willing to step up and go for it, and he did just that,” said coach Adam Wright.
McClintick played a strong game throughout the night, as he scored the first goal of the game and one more to start the second half.
“We have to trust the system and know that if we do what we practice every day that we were going to be okay,” he said.
The Bruins end the regular season with a 27-2 record overall and a 7-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record.
However, the team isn’t ready to rest just yet, as the players will have to prepare for the MPSF championships next weekend and the NCAA championships the following week.
“We knew the season could come down to one game like this, and we feel great about the game, but we know that we have a big challenge ahead of us,” Wendt said.