As the season continues to heat up, UCLA women’s water polo found itself competing against familiar opponents in its third invitational of the year.
This weekend, the No. 2 Bruins (10-1) participated in the UC Irvine Invitational, matching up against a formidable group of teams including No. 1 USC, No. 3 California and No. 4 Stanford as well as a couple of newcomers.
“It’s definitely a very different year than it has been (in the past). It seems like Hawai’i is coming up (and) Michigan (is) kind of stepping into bigger roles,” said sophomore attacker Devin Grab. “We expect ourselves and other people expect us to be up there, one of the top if not the top teams.”
The Bruins left Irvine with two more wins to its season total but a bitter taste in their mouths after suffering a second loss to the Trojans in the tournament finale.
“On one end I think that we are getting better as group but it’s also clear that ‘SC is better than us right now,” said coach Brandon Brooks.
UCLA started off Saturday morning by beating No. 19 San Diego State 6-5. Redshirt junior center Alexa Tielmann netted two points, with the rest of UCLA’s points scored by sophomore attacker Devin Grab, senior center India Forster, junior utility Mackenzie Barr and senior defender Charlotte Pratt.
Senior Alex Musselman and freshman Carlee Kapana took turns in goal for the Bruins, and Musselman notched a season-high 12 saves against the Aztec shooters.
The Bruins gained momentum during the next game of the day, beating No. 7 Michigan with a decisive 14-8 win. Barr led the team in scoring with four points, followed by junior attacker Ashley Zwirner and Tielmann netting three goals apiece.
UCLA kicked off Sunday with a 10-6 win against No. 6 Hawai’i. Kapana made six saves in the cage against the Rainbow Wahine. Zwiner, Grab, Pratt and Tielmann all put up two for the Bruins, while Forster and freshman attacker Lizette Rozeboom also found the back of the net.
“We’re all really good shooters and I think we need to be more confident stepping in there and taking that shot we know we can make,” Grab said. “Defensively we’re really solid, we’re a really solid team, but I just think offensively we need to step in and be okay with shooting the ball.”
For the invitational championship, it was an all-too-familiar rivalry showdown between the Bruins and Trojans in the last match of the weekend. Shooting proved to be an issue once again for UCLA, as USC outscored the Bruins in the title match 10-7 at the Anteater Aquatics Complex.
“As a Bruin, you never ever ever want to lose to USC,” Grab said. “It’s never a good feeling – it’s one of the worst feelings. We’re going to be hungry coming back. … It lit a fire under us to beat them.”
Email Zhang at mzhang1@media.ucla.edu.