Friday, April 12, 1996
MPSF tournament to serve as practice for upcoming gamesBy Mark
J. Dittmer
Daily Bruin Contributor
When the UCLA women’s water polo team plays the national
championship qualifying tournament in two weeks, just about all of
the games they will have played up to that point will basically
become irrelevant.
So as the Bruins (16-0, 6-0 MPSF) play their last tournament
this weekend before their second season starts in two weeks, the
idea that it might not mean much has to be in the back of their
minds. In fact, it is in their minds, and many of them admit that
its importance is minimal.
"This is a kind of a preparation tournament because our next two
tournaments are much more important," freshman driver Katie
Tenenbaum said. "This is the MPSF championship tournament, but the
other two probably mean more to everyone."
You see, the Bruins play in the MPSF tournament this weekend in
Berkeley  the one that doesn’t mean as much. Two weeks later,
the Bruins host the Western Qualifying tournament. They have to
play well in that tournament to move on to the national
championships held two weeks after that. And there is no question
how important the national championships are.
"It would be nice to win the tournament (this weekend)," head
coach Guy Baker said. "But at the same time, we’re focusing on the
end of the year and that’s still four weeks away."
Realizing that this tournament’s importance pales in
significance when compared to their upcoming games, the Bruins are
forced to motivate themselves in other ways.
Amanda Gall, one of the Bruins’ five freshmen starters, has one
idea: "I think it’s important that we play well this weekend
because it’s like the first of all three tournaments for the rest
of the season, and if we play really well this weekend, it’ll set
the tone for the rest of the tournaments."
The Bruins will be playing some of the same teams throughout all
three tournaments. Today they start with their fifth game of the
season against Santa Barbara. Saturday, the Bruins play Stanford,
and their last two games are to be announced.
The semifinals are on Saturday, the finals are on Sunday, and
the Bruins are likely to have to field tough competition from San
Diego State and California. Most of these teams will also be
involved in the Western Qualifying tournament, and seven teams from
the West Coast go to the national championships. So the Bruins will
be seeing these teams again.
"We need to come out strong," says Gall about this upcoming
tournament, "to put fear into our opponents."