Between a coach and a few hecklers, there was an abnormal amount of yelling at Spieker Aquatics Center on Friday afternoon.
As the No. 2 UCLA women’s water polo team took on No. 1 Stanford, Stanford’s coach John Tanner repeatedly yelled at the referees as his team battled to a 9-8 victory over UCLA.
A few rambunctious – and at one point shirtless – spectators yelled back. Mostly, they were taunting Tanner, yelling “Hey John,” to distract him from the game, but they also yelled at the refs after one UCLA ejection.
The game started well for the Bruins (22-3, 4-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation), who won the opening sprint to set up an unassisted goal from sophomore attacker Rachel Fattal a mere 29 seconds into the game. The first period ended tied 2-2, but four goals from the Cardinal against two from the Bruins in the second left Stanford ahead 6-4 after the half.
UCLA surged back after halftime with three consecutive scores, but Stanford managed to regain its composure to win the game in the fourth period.
After the loss, coach Brandon Brooks seemed to think his team could do better.
“I thought that we had some mistakes that were uncharacteristic for us so far this year,” Brooks said. “I think we put ourselves in a tough spot.”
After the game, senior utility Becca Dorst was already focused on the San Jose State game the next day.
“I think the challenge is definitely gonna be to get up (Saturday),” she said. “It’s a tough loss.”
But she also added that the women on the team “are competitors through and through,” which certainly showed the next day against No. 8 San Jose State.
While the Spartans weren’t ranked as high as the Bruins, they came to Spieker in the middle of a hot streak of six wins in seven games that saw them defeat No. 5 Arizona State and lose to then-No. 1 USC by only a point.
SJSU looked to be on track to continue that streak early Saturday afternoon, when an opening sprint win set up an early goal for the Spartans in what was to be a slow-paced, very defensive game on UCLA’s Senior Day. Perhaps fittingly, two of the team’s three seniors, Dorst and attacker Kelly Ronimus, combined for three of four UCLA goals in the first half.
The Spartans kept the game tied going into halftime, but two unanswered goals by the Bruins in the third period seemed to energize the team, which eventually won 8-6.
“I think that the team made a decision. It made a decision to be better,” Brooks said. “It made a decision to dig a little deeper and make a little more effort and that was the difference (in the second half).”
UCLA now stands at 1-2 against Stanford this season, while Stanford has extended its regular-season conference winning streak against UCLA to six games.
UCLA is also 2-0 against SJSU this season and sits tied in second place with USC in MPSF standings.
After this weekend, UCLA has little time to rest. On Wednesday, the team will travel across town to play its final regular-season game against USC.
Brooks thinks the team is ready.
“It’s the ‘SC game,” Brooks said. “There’s no excuses here.”