Friday, October 18, 1996
WATER POLO:
After being on the road for 14 games, the team finally gets to
play at homeBy Rick Banks
Daily Bruin Contributor
On Saturday, the UCLA men’s water polo team will do something
they have not done all season  play at home.
Fourteen games into their season, the Bruins can finally give
their suitcases a rest. This weekend they play host to the
Pepperdine Waves in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
contest.
Then they will take on the United States Naval Academy and the
University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Sunday.
"It feels like we’ve been on the road forever," UCLA head coach
Guy Baker said. "It’ll be nice to play at home."
UCLA returns home with a 13-1 overall record, 2-0 in the MPSF,
and holding onto a No. 2 ranking.
This will be the third meeting between the Bruins and the Waves
this year. UCLA came away with two victories in the previous
meetings, but the second win did not come easy.
Pepperdine gave them a run for their money in the Northern
California Tournament last weekend.
The Waves made up a two goal deficit in the fourth period and
took an 8-7 lead before falling by a final of 9-8.
"We struggled a little bit with the zone defense," Baker said.
"We need to get a little better on our zone offense."
The Pepperdine defense made some obvious changes from their
first meeting with UCLA. In that game, the Bruins put 16 points on
the board, en route to a 16-5 victory. Last Saturday was a
different story.
"They had good goal play," Baker said. "Merrill Moses made a lot
of saves early in the game … tough saves early that kept them in
the game."
UCLA will have to improve on its perimeter offense in order to
keep Pepperdine out of their zone or "drop" defense.
"Our outside shooting wasn’t that great," said senior utility
player Corbin Graham. "We have been working on our outside shooting
and playing against the drop."
The Bruins will also be working on keeping their league record
unblemished. With the bulk of their MPSF games remaining, the
Bruins need to stay solid to get a good seeding in the conference
tournament.
"The next two weeks are important," Baker said.
In that span, the Bruins will take on four league teams,
including Pepperdine. In between, they will play three non-league
matches.
Two of those matches will come Sunday against Navy and
UMass.
"They are the two best teams from back east," Baker said. "Both
are good, physical teams."
Those matchups will give UCLA a preview of the potential NCAA
representatives from the east. But before they can think about
that, they will have to deal with their remaining league schedule
and the fast-approaching conference tournament.