USC women’s water polo coach Jovan Vavic screamed a slew of inaudible words in the waning moments of the fourth quarter, as he had been during every intermission in Saturday’s game.
However, Vavic was no longer yelling at his team, which was down 8-5 to UCLA with a minute to go. He had moved on to shouting across the pool at the Bruin fans who were taunting him.
“Stop playing Pictionary, your team doesn’t want to play your game,” and “Sit down coach – the game is over,” were among the jeers emanating from the nearly-filled stands at Spieker Aquatics Center.
The game was in fact over for the Trojans, but one more goal by the Bruins with 30 seconds to go put an exclamation mark on UCLA’s 9-5 win.
The victory not only gave UCLA a 2-0 record against USC in the regular season, but also clinched a perfect home season and the No. 2 seed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament for the Bruins.
“(This means) so much. At the beginning of the year we made a goal to win every game at home,” said redshirt senior goalkeeper Sami Hill, who spearheaded the defense with eight saves. “Today was the last one and we’ve won every game so it was really exciting to complete that goal we set for ourselves before the season started. I’m so happy.”
Hill and the Bruin defense held their own once again, holding their opponent to less than six goals for the 18th time in 23 games this season.
Following a pattern that’s lasted all season, the Bruin defense interrupted countless attempts at offensive drives made by the Trojans. Saturday’s game wasn’t exactly a replay of Feb. 22’s defensive struggle, which UCLA won 5-3, but scoring was still at a premium.
USC had several opportunities to score at the net, but Hill stood strong as UCLA’s last line of defense, holding the Trojans to one first-half goal.
“Our defense was nailed,” said junior attacker Rachel Fattal. “I think Sami played great in the goal today and our defenders just crushed this game.”
The opening of the third quarter, however, saw a shift in performance by the two teams. A pass by USC’s Monica Vavic settled into the hands of Hayley McKelvey positioned just in front of the cage ready to drive the ball past Hill, bringing the score to 4-2. Immediately afterwards, UCLA lost possession yet again and USC cut the Bruin lead down to one with another goal all within the first 90 seconds of the third.
One more goal from each side brought the score to 5-4 heading into the fourth quarter.
“I thought that we lost a little bit of discipline offensively,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “We took a second to settle down. I mean we talked about the fact that we’re pushing too hard offensively and rushing things so we took a second to catch our breath and refocus.”
That moment of intermission at the end of the third quarter served the Bruins well, as UCLA came out and dominated the fourth period. Although USC goalkeeper Victória Chamorro proved to be a staunch obstacle with her 11 saves, UCLA found a strategy in the last quarter of the game that drove the Bruins’ breakaway. Brooks continuously yelled from the sidelines to get wider and maintain spacing on offense.
Pushing the Bruins to a 7-4 lead, junior defender Alys Williams executed a pass from the far outside corner of the pool across the goal to junior attacker Kodi Hill, who stretched her arm upward to smack the ball down into the cage. That very cross-court pass sequence repeated itself several times in the fourth quarter for UCLA.
“We just emphasized moving a lot on the weak side and I think that’s what led to those goals. We were just constantly moving and driving on that side,” Sami Hill said.
Brooks said he was impressed with the drives and passes made in the early fourth quarter, emphasizing that everyone had to be on the same page for it all to come together.
Next stop: postseason
Postseason kicks off next weekend, but UCLA will not be in the comforts of its own territory. Brooks said he hopes the energy from this week will follow the Bruins into the MPSF tournament.
“It feels great to get a win, especially for this group of seniors that have been so dedicated and wonderful for our program,” Brooks said. “But, going forward, we’re still very likely to see (USC) again next week and there’s still plenty of things that we can learn from this and take from this, including confidence and experience.”