With 24 seconds left to play, sophomore attacker Kodi Hill swiped the ball from a UC Irvine player, preventing a UCI comeback and sealing the 19th consecutive victory over UCI for the UCLA women’s water polo team.
About a minute earlier, the game had seemed to be set to go to overtime, tied 5-5. A last minute goal from freshman attacker Mackenzie Barr put the No. 3 Bruins (12-1) in the lead for the first time in the second half. But No. 5 UCI got the ball after the goal and looked to challenge UCLA – until Hill’s steal.
In those last seconds, all that was going through assistant coach Molly Cahill’s mind was defense.
“We had been tough as nails defensively the whole game, and we just needed one last stop,” Cahill said.
Coach Brandon Brooks was “tense” for those last moments, but he wasn’t as worried as he had been before the team hit it’s stride late in the game.
The close victory came at the end of a hard-fought game for the Bruins, who led the competition only briefly in the second period before falling behind 3-2 at the half. A goal from junior attacker Emily Donohoe in the third period was answered by a goal from UCI’s McKenna Mitchell, keeping the Bruins behind 4-3 with one period left.
An early goal in the fourth period by Hill tied the game once again, but UCI’s Jessy Cardey came back with another score, putting the Anteaters up once again.
It took a goal from sophomore attacker Rachel Fattal to tie the game for the final time before Barr could keep the game from going to overtime.
“We were kind of trailing the whole game, so it was nice to finally be ahead,” senior utility Becca Dorst said of the last goal.
While trailing most of the game was ever present in the Bruins’ minds, it did not significantly affect their play, according to Donohoe.
“We had the same mindset throughout the whole game, but that added pressure kind of lit a fire that we knew we had to continue playing hard,” Donohoe said.
She added that the team was able to maintain its composure and continue communicating throughout the game.
“We just trusted in each other and tried to put our teamwork together. We didn’t let any situation get us frustrated or anxious,” Donohoe said.
Playing hard through the whole game has been a focal point of UCLA’s practices lately, but Cahill says the team still has work to do.
“We are happy we got the win, but we have a lot of work to do before the UCI Tournament next weekend. We have to learn from this game and start preparing for next weekend,” Cahill said.
The Bruins will return to Irvine next Saturday and Sunday for four games. While the schedule for the tournament has not been posted yet, No. 1 USC, No. 2 Stanford, No. 4 California and UCI will be there.