Blood began streaming from Cardinal junior Alison
Gregorka’s nose after she received a blow to her face.
Jessica Steffens’ chin rested on the side of the pool, her
eyes stewing with tears after she got the wind knocked out of
her.
Call it the physical nature of water polo, but the Cardinal got
the worst of it in a conference bout at Sunset Recreation
Center.
In a game that will undoubtedly build momentum and confidence
with only one regular season game remaining, UCLA outlasted a
surging Stanford team in overtime, 9-8, on Saturday.
“It was a big game for us, no doubt,” senior utility
Kristina Kunkel said. “This was huge for our
confidence.”
With the victory over Stanford, which was a rematch of last
season’s national championship won by UCLA, the Bruins (23-3,
10-1 MPSF) now move up to second in the conference and the Cardinal
(18-4, 9-2) drop to the third spot. Top-ranked USC remains
undefeated.
Having gone a combined 0-for-3 against the top two teams in the
nation when they headed into Saturday, the Bruins needed to prove
to themselves that they can beat the Cardinal ““ they will
likely see Stanford in both the semifinals of the conference
tournament and the NCAA Tournament.
“The last time we played (Stanford), our mental game was
not up to par,” junior goalie Emily Feher said. “We
didn’t have the confidence; we didn’t have the
desire.
“We know we’re probably going to see Stanford two
more times, so we needed this one.”
In a physical game that saw 29 total ejections, the Bruins
controlled the tempo for the most part.
UCLA took hold of the game after a four-goal run that elapsed
from late in the second period into the third period.
Bruin freshman lefty Anne Belden drilled a shot from five meters
out, giving the Bruins their biggest lead of the game, 5-2, with
6:17 remaining in the third period.
But from that point, UCLA nearly coughed the game up. Everything
seemed to turn for the worst.
UCLA coach Adam Krikorian was given a yellow card after arguing
on leading scorer Kelly Rulon’s third ejection. The ejection
sent the junior to the bench for the rest of the game.
The Cardinal defense tightened up and the offense found a
rhythm, scoring three goals in the fourth, which included the
go-ahead goal by Gregorka to give Stanford a 7-6 lead with 1:33
left in regulation.
“It almost looked like we let it go in the fourth
quarter,” Kunkel said.
It looked as if Stanford would pull off a miracle comeback. But
a Bruin team that has had mental lapses for the better part of the
season finally came through.
On a crossing play drawn up by Krikorian on a time-out, redshirt
senior utility Thalia Munro drew an ejection on Cardinal Katie
Hansen. On the Bruins’ 6-on-5 advantage, Kunkel had a shot
swallowed up by Stanford goalie Meridith McColl, but in a scuffle
for the rebound, Bruin freshman Tanya Gandy wound up with the
ball.
Steffens deflected Gandy’s shot, but Munro found the ball
and gave it to sophomore Jillian Kraus, who drilled in an
eight-meter shot into the left side of the goal with 12.6 seconds
to send the game into overtime.
“It was my shot. I saw the opening,” said Kraus, who
finished with two goals.
Krikorian admitted afterward that if his team had been put in
this situation early on, the result would have been different.
“We lose this one for sure in the beginning of the
season,” Krikorian said. “I was happy to see us
respond. You’re going to have bad stretches. You have to
fight through those and keep plugging away.”
UCLA closed the game out in the two three-minute overtimes.
The stifling press that UCLA had in the first three quarters
returned.
Munro, who drew countless ejections on Stanford, and Kraus were
leading the Bruin defense, swatting down shots, deflecting passes,
and ripping balls away from the Cardinal.
Feher, who had a game-high 11 saves, was gobbling up a bulk of
Stanford’s attempts.
“That’s the best we’ve played,” Munro
said.
UCLA scored in the first and second period of overtime on a pair
of man-advantage goals. Stanford could never recover.
“We needed to play good 5-on-6,” Stanford coach John
Tanner said. “We gave up a counter goal and a 6-on-5 goal.
That pretty much did us in.”
The Bruins went 4-for-12 on their man-advantage and Stanford was
5-for-13. UCLA held a 29-27 shot advantage over Stanford.
Asked if the Bruins now feel comfortable facing longtime rival
Stanford in the postseason after splitting their two regular-season
meetings, Krikorian was quick to decline the notion.
“It’s going to be a dogfight,” he said.
“I guarantee you if we play them two more times this season,
it’ll be one-goal games.”