With UCLA men’s water polo ending the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships in fourth place, the team did not receive a bid for the NCAA tournament.
The Bruins were plagued with slow starts and an inability to come back from these setbacks during the tournament.
The weekend started off well enough, with a 11-8 win against No. 6 UC Santa Barbara, as eight different UCLA players got points up on the scoreboard.
But the team failed to gain the momentum needed on Saturday to beat No. 2 Stanford, losing 11-10.
From the beginning, Stanford had control of the game, scoring the first two goals before senior defender Chris Wendt answered with a goal of his own. Ending the first quarter down by five points, UCLA was unable to catch up, until the fourth quarter.
Redshirt junior utility Christiano Mirarchi sprung into overdrive with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, scoring three straight goals and closing the gap from four goals at 11-7 to just one with 28 seconds left on the clock.
Despite their best efforts, the Bruins fell one goal short of winning the MPSF semifinals, but went on to compete against Pacific for the third-place spot.
On Sunday, the team’s defense was lacking against No. 1 Pacific, with redshirt freshman goalkeeper Garrett Danner registering only eight saves throughout the game. The Bruins lost 10-9 after trailing most of the game.