It’s been 11 days since the UCLA women’s water polo team played its last game, an 8-4 loss to Stanford.
In that week and a half off, UCLA (11-1) has had time to reflect on the loss and prepare to play No. 5 UC Irvine (9-3) on the road Thursday night.
After losing to Stanford, coach Brandon Brooks talked about the same thing he’d been stressing to his team for the first weeks of the season: killer instinct.
“We’ve played well enough to be third in the country, but that’s not where we want to be. I think killer instinct is something we need to work on,” Brooks said.
Improving its killer instinct has been one of the focal points of UCLA’s practices lately, and Brooks thinks the team has been improving.
The details of Thursday night’s game have been another mainstay of practices lately, according to sophomore center India Forster.
While some of the preparation work has come from watching film, Forster said that most of the work has been in the pool, with the team splitting up and scrimmaging.
“We’ve been doing a lot of what they run in practice. We have two different teams, and we switch off and go back and forth on their plays,” Forster said.
In spite of all the preparation for their opponent, the Bruins are still keeping the focus on themselves.
“We try to focus less on what the other team does and more on what we can do to make (the) results in our favor,” said sophomore defender Maddy McLaren.
Against the Anteaters, the Bruins will need to maintain their focus against what Brooks said was a “very solid” team, especially on defense.
“(They’re) very scrappy, very tough. It’s gonna be tough,” Brooks said.
On paper at least, UCLA and UCI look fairly similar so far this season. Both teams have beaten Loyola Marymount University and lost to Stanford. UCLA has been averaging about 13.6 points per game, while UCI so far has averaged about 11.3. UCLA has allowed 5.5 goals per game, and UCI has allowed 6.
The Bruins do have history on their side, however. In 17 meetings between the two teams, the Anteaters have yet to win.
History aside, the Bruins may still need to rely on whatever killer instinct they have developed over the past week and a half.
“We have to score goals and we need to be more disciplined, more cohesive in our attack as a unit,” Brooks said. “I know Irvine is gonna be prepared and hungry, and they’re gonna give us their best shot.”