With a minute left to play in the last quarter, UCLA had one last opportunity to tie the game against rival Stanford.
In typical UCLA-Stanford fashion, the game was decided by one goal.
That one goal however would not be in the Bruins’ favor.
With a little over five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, No. 1 UCLA trailed No. 2 Stanford by three goals. As the gap began to widen between the Bruins and the Cardinal, it was junior attacker Rachel Fattal, senior attacker Emily Donohoe and junior attacker Charlotte Pratt who were able to close the gap and pull the game to a one-goal deficit.
“As a team, we had the understanding that in order for us to tie it or score another goal we just had to focus on ourselves,” Donohoe said.
Though UCLA continued to attack at Stanford’s defense, they could not surpass Stanford’s lead, established at the beginning of the first quarter.
“Coming out of this game we played probably 22 minutes of really solid water polo,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “We came out of the first five minutes of the first quarter and gave up three goals and came out of the first three and half minutes of the fourth quarter and gave up another three goals. If we want to be successful we can’t give up those runs to a team as good as Stanford.”
With this loss, UCLA is now 4-1 in the MPSF conference and 20-2 overall. The previous loss that the Bruins suffered was also a loss against the Cardinal on Feb. 1. The Bruins have held their place in the No. 1 spot since Feb. 22 in the MPSF rankings. However, with this loss, UCLA has slipped into the No. 3 ranking.
“You never want to lose a game, but we didn’t want to leave that pool feeling defeated,” said redshirt senior goalkeeper Sami Hill. “Rather, we came to an understanding that we need to continue working hard and keep pushing ourselves.”
Hill had nine saves against the Cardinal, while Fattal ended the day with three goals.
“I am very happy with our fight and competitiveness,” Brooks said. “It takes a lot to come back from three goals down twice in a game. We each played a pretty good game, but Stanford played a little bit better than us.”