Coming off an 8-6 loss to crosstown rival No. 1 USC last week, UCLA women’s water polo was able to regroup this weekend securing an 11-6 win over UC Irvine on Friday night.
The No. 2 Bruins (8-1) secured their 20th straight victory against the No. 9 Anteaters (6-5), but it would be a highly contested matchup between the two Southern California teams.
“I thought it was mostly a good performance by us. I am happy with how we played for the most part,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “I thought our energy and teamwork went down in the third quarter, then we picked it back up in the fourth quarter. So it was at least two and a half good quarters of water polo.”
UCLA came out in the first quarter strong, netting six goals in comparison to UC Irvine’s two. The Bruins took an early lead as they jumped out 8-2 at the end of the first half over the Anteaters.
“It’s always nice to get the first goal,” said senior defender Charlotte Pratt. “A big thing for us is we don’t like trading goals with teams. So once we scored the first goal and they scored, we came right back and scored some more.”
The Bruins’ success in the first half was due in part by executing conversions and breaking the Anteater’s press and collapsing their zone defense. Having little luck in conversions in the Triton Invitational, UCLA made it a focus for improvement.
“Going into the game we knew that we had the ability to create opportunities, but we needed to finish them,” Pratt said. “I think that’s one of the reasons we came out so strong, we were finally executing the opportunities that we created.”
However, a late spark from UCI in the third quarter silenced UCLA offensively and ignited an offense of its own. The two goals in the third from UCI cut the deficit at half, bringing the fourth quarter score to 8-4.
“In the second half we definitely slowed down, we got a little bit softer,” said freshman goalkeeper Carlee Kapana. “They were pressing us really hard and we couldn’t really execute that much.”
The drastic change of pace from the first half to the start of the second began to shift into Irvine’s favor as the Bruins were unable to score a single goal in the third quarter.
“I think we got a little too comfortable,” Brooks said. “I think that we saw that we were up 8-2 at half and UCI is a good opponent and they came out and fought hard. I think it took us back a little bit.”
Finding its original offensive rhythm that was eminent at the start of the game, UCLA returned to its original pace in the final quarter and held onto the 11-6 win.
“No good team is just going to give up,” Brooks said. “UCI came back and fought and I think it took us a little bit to get it back together and play water polo we have been playing.”
Both senior goalkeeper Alex Musselman and freshman Kapana had a combined twelve saves against the Anteaters, with eight and four saves respectively. The two goalkeepers have kept opponents to single-digit scoring this season, sharing time in the cage.
“Both goalies Carlee and Alex bring something different, but are both solid goalies,” said junior attacker Ashley Zwirner. “It’s nice having confidence in your goalies so we are able to run the team difference that we want to run.”
Redshirt junior center Alexa Tielmann led the scoring for the Bruins with two goals, while five other Bruins were also able to find the back of the net.
UCLA was able to work on attacking a zone defense and shooting from the outside in a game situation. But it was ultimately their execution of front court offense and patience that prompted a strong offense.
“Overall, I thought we had a really good attitude coming into this game,” Kapana said. “In the first quarter we were up 6-2 and I think we did a really good job executing our shots. We did well on both the offensive and defensive side so that was really nice.”