It was a game of spurts.
In Friday night’s 9-3 victory for No. 1 UCLA men’s water polo (10-0) against No. 9 Pepperdine (6-1), the Bruins came out strong, but failed to get the gears working together as the game went on.
After scoring six goals in the opening half, the Bruins produced only three in the second. They’ve been averaging more than that a quarter in their first nine tournament games this year.
Regardless, they took control from the get-go when senior attacker Patrick Fellner put up a goal on the opening possession of the first quarter. Three minutes later, freshman utility James Vlachonassios scored another to put the Bruins ahead 2-0.
Soon after, junior center Matt Farmer drew an exclusion to give UCLA its first 6-on-5 of the game. The Bruins worked the ball around the perimeter, but didn’t see anything until their 20-second advantage was up. Senior attacker Ryder Roberts passed across the pool to senior defender Chancellor Ramirez, who skipped in a shot to the top-left corner as the defense crashed on him.
Fellner stole the ball on the ensuing Pepperdine possession, and drew an exclusion as he swam towards the cage. He passed the ball to make himself active, and no one was around him on the right side of the goal when he got the ball back.
That tally put the Bruins up 4-0. They’ve scored more goals in less time this season, but the four would have been enough in the end thanks to a smothering defense.
Roberts recorded two field blocks in that first quarter, one which came off a 5-on-6 cross-court pass. If the ball ever got past the Bruins’ aggressive perimeter defense, players crashed effectively to the center or junior goalie Aleksander Ruzic stole it away.
One lob shot from outside the five-meter line glanced off of Ruzic’s hand as he lunged backwards, but that would be the only goal UCLA would allow until the fourth quarter.
“We had a lot of shot blocks from the field,” Ruzic said. “The defense did a very good job of keeping the two-meter man outside the two-meter line and keeping him closer to the five-meter line. We did a good job not letting people fake a ton from the outside.”
Twice in the second Pepperdine had to throw the ball away – thus sacrificing what remained of its offensive possession – to get back on defense, and the Waves’ shot clock expired on one of their man-up opportunities.
At halftime it was 6-1 after another Ramirez skip shot and a power play goal from junior utility Alex Roelse. The Bruins had trouble getting results from the center in the first half – Pepperdine stole the ball three times and crashed onto UCLA’s big men often.
“We fed the ball to our centers, they did a nice job trying to put the ball away, and it just wasn’t going in the first half,” Vlachonassios said.
They had more success in the second half, but the centers couldn’t get a shot off before the defense crashed or draw anything more than an ordinary foul.
The Bruins tried any way they could to get an exclusion out of center, but they couldn’t manage a goal for over 10 minutes before Ramirez redirected a quick pass from Roelse thanks to a brief man-up window of opportunity.
“We got off to a pretty good start … we weren’t hitting all of our shots but we had some good success early on, the ball was moving from the left side to the right side really well, putting the ball into the center lane,” coach Adam Wright said. “We have to be able to do that for four quarters and that’s what the disappointing part is is that we kind of got away from that a little bit.”
They turned to outside shooting for production towards the end of the quarter, and Roelse rose out of the water to launch a powerful shot that nicked the bottom of the cross bar and into the back of the net.
The Bruins only managed one goal in the fourth, courtesy of senior attacker Joey Fuentes’ shot from outside of five meters that snuck through the Pepperdine defense, and they let up two more.
Before a quick cross-court catch-and-shoot found the back of the net, UCLA held Pepperdine scoreless for more than 17 minutes. Junior attacker Max Irving was then called a minute after the goal for a five-meter penalty shot.
“We didn’t help Ruzic out in the fourth quarter, because we’re not taking our blocking responsibilities,” Wright said. “He has blocking responsibilities, the field players have blocking responsibilities, and you know to me, it’s really a (sign of a) lack of concentration.”
Ruzic recorded three of his four total saves in the fourth quarter, but to Wright, that’s a sign of inconsistent defense.
“You see the way we finish out swimming at the end of a counter attack, and they get a couple inside balls, and our goalie can’t do anything about it,” Wright said. “A penalty ball, a counter attack, so again it comes down to a choice – we play in spurts the right way, and then we stop, so it’s about becoming more consistent.”