While UCLA men’s water polo rides the momentum of a Kap7 SoCal Invitational title and a 17-0 start to the season, its upcoming opponents haven’t fared as well.
No. 4 Stanford has experienced a disappointing October with three losses in the past two weeks, and unranked San Jose State hasn’t tasted victory since September.
Whether the hunger to break a losing streak is more powerful than the desire to extend a winning one will be seen when the Cardinal (14-4, 0-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) and Spartans (2-14, 0-2) host the top-ranked Bruins (17-0, 1-0) this weekend.
Saturday will mark the second time UCLA has faced Stanford this season, after defeating the league foe 8-7 in the Kap7 NorCal tournament championship game on Sept. 20.
“We fully understand that Stanford is going to give us their best game,” said coach Adam Wright. “They’re a team that every year competes to be the best in the country. … These games always come down to one or two goals.”
Though the Bruins pride themselves on defense and their ability to stop conversions in man-down situations, full-game consistency – especially when leading the opponent by a large margin – is an area Wright feels the Bruins must improve.
“We were up big against USC going into the fourth quarter,” said sophomore attacker Max Irving. “Then we kind of let them come back and at one point tie the game 9-9. We can definitely shore that up and stay focused throughout the entire game.”
Irving also stressed urgency at the beginning of the game, not allowing the opponent to strike first, regardless of who wins the opening sprint. In both SoCal matches against the Trojans and Golden Bears, the Bruins fell into early deficits.
Though the Cardinal came up short, losing 14-11 to Cal in the third-place matchup in Malibu, they have proven to be contenders against the Bruins’ top competition this season – No. 2 USC.
The Cardinal defeated the Trojans in September’s NorCal tournament but, two weeks later, they lost in Trojan territory after staging a five-goal comeback in the final 11 minutes of the game to push the match into overtime.
It will be necessary for the Bruins to remain in control of the pace of the game and force desperate shots at the buzzer should they have a lead heading into the second half Saturday. Historically, the Cardinal have had success disrupting defenses when in a deficit.
“Defensively, we gave up some really easy goals where we didn’t give Garrett (Danner) a chance,” Wright said after the SoCal final. “We can’t do that up there … Stanford has a lot of good players, a lot of players that are on the National Team, a lot of guys that will be Olympians.”
Senior driver Bret Bonanni is one of those lethal shooters on the Cardinal roster. Currently leading the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference with 55 goals, Bonanni has been a key component of Stanford’s comebacks.
While UCLA has played more than 150 games against Stanford in school history, Sunday’s game against the Spartans will mark the first time UCLA has played against San Jose State in more than 30 years. The newly reinstated Spartan water polo team was rebuilt this season with new players and a new coaching staff.
“For men’s water polo, it’s huge that we have a program added and a program of that stature,” Wright said. “San Jose used to be one of the premiere programs. It’s our responsibility as a team and as a program to get better, but it’s also our responsibility as a sport to help these teams that are restarting their programs.”
Though UCLA’s MPSF-leading defense will likely bring trouble to fledgling shooters on San Jose’s roster, junior center Patrick Woepse and his teammates aren’t ruling out their new league opponent.
“We don’t know a lot about them because we haven’t seen them play very much,” Woepse said. “They’re in our conference, so it’s a must-win game and we have to prepare for every game equally.”
Each UCLA win makes the prospect of an upset even sweeter for opponents. Come the weekend, the Bruins will be entering the home pools of two hungry teams – both on losing streaks and eager to reverse their fate, especially the Cardinal.
“Stanford had a couple hard losses at the end of the SoCal tournament,” Wright said. “They have great motivation and we have to be able to match that.”