The men’s water polo team did a lot of things right at last weekend’s Kap7 NorCal Invitational.
But coach Adam Wright has chosen to focus this week’s practices on one of the few things his team did wrong.
Even as the No. 1 Bruins (9-0) picked up their third straight tournament title, they continued their early-season struggles in 6-on-5 situations. In impressive wins over then-No. 3 California and then-No. 4 Stanford, UCLA converted just six of its 22 power play opportunities.
“Every time you play, you have an opportunity to get better in certain aspects of the game,” Wright said. “We know we want to get better on the 6-on-5. We need to take advantage of that.”
This weekend’s matchups against two unranked opponents, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Chapman, provide the perfect opportunity for the Bruins to fine-tune their attack and experiment with multiple lineup rotations.
“This week is set up to help develop some of our players,” Wright said. “We need to become deeper as a team. There are a lot of good teams that will pass us if we are sitting still.”
UCLA thumped Chapman 24-3 in last weekend’s tournament but senior utility Danny McClintick said the Panthers showed an ability to attack by setting picks and looking for drives.
“Chapman moves really well,” McClintick said. “They have a lot of guys that are constantly on the move that can give us some match-up problems.”
McClintick said individual defense will be important against Chapman, as the Bruins must avoid complacency after last weekend’s result.
“Something that I think is really important, especially for this group, is that there is no easy game, there is no easy goal, and nothing is easy,” McClintick said. “The second that you overlook someone, just because you beat them last weekend, could be our season right there.”
Weaker opponents present an entirely different test than elite foes like Cal and Stanford, Wright noted.
“It’s easy, I guess, to get up for the big games, but that’s a dangerous way to go about things,” Wright said. “Our approach this week is no different whether we are playing a team like USC, Stanford, Cal, any of these top teams, or Chapman or Claremont. We respect our opponent and approach everything the same.”
As defending national champions, the Bruins have grown accustomed to playing the role of favorite. So they know how to deal with it.
“We try to say that we are playing nameless opponents,” said freshman attacker Spencer Farrar. “We just focus on how we play and try to be as consistent as we can. If we focus on ourselves, then I think we will do well.”