For the No. 3 UCLA men’s water polo team, Friday’s game against No. 1 Stanford will be a chance to avenge its second loss of the season.
That loss was less than two weeks ago, in the last game of the SoCal Tournament, just hours after UCLA had fallen to USC. In that game, Stanford grabbed an early lead and hung on to win 7-6 despite a late UCLA comeback.
Last weekend, UCLA redeemed itself by winning 13-8 in Berkeley, and today, the Bruins are looking to do something similar.
For that to happen, however, the Bruins have had to spend this week polishing their play.
“There’s a lot of stuff we have to sharpen up in our transition game because Stanford is a heavily oriented transition team, very dynamic, very explosive,” said coach Adam Wright.
On Oct. 12, Stanford took a quick 2-0 lead and held off any UCLA scoring until near the end of the first period. Although UCLA rallied late, the early Stanford lead ultimately proved insurmountable.
In order to prevent something similar from reoccurring, the Bruins are looking to play strong for the entire game.
“Staying consistent is something we’ve been focusing on a lot,” said junior utility Danny McClintick.
There is a long history between these two conference rivals, extending well past last week’s game. In 1999, UCLA edged out Stanford for a national title. Two years later, Stanford crushed UCLA’s hopes of a third straight title. Then, in 2004, UCLA beat Stanford in Palo Alto during the national title game in overtime.
The history between the teams matters less than what will happen in the pool. And that means UCLA will have to contend with a strong Stanford offense.
“Stanford is an excellent shooting team,” Wright said. “They have three of the best shooters in the country.”
To contain that powerful offense, the Bruins have been working on a variety of defensive scenarios, especially five-man defense against power plays.
For senior attacker Paul Reynolds, beating Stanford boils down to one goal: playing better defense.
If the Bruins manage to stay strong on defense, they may be able to avenge their second loss and tarnish Stanford’s so-far perfect Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record.
Compiled by Erik Rehnberg, Bruin Sports contributor.