Monday, November 25, 1996
WATER POLO:
USC gets early advantage; UCLA never able to catch upBy Greg
Calvert
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Rose Bowl parking lot experienced heavy congestion in the
early morning of Saturday’s huge gameday. Even water polo fans
couldn’t "beat the traffic" to see the 10 a.m. UCLA-USC game at the
Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, as tailgaters for the UCLA-USC football
game started arriving by the thousands at daybreak.
This match was expected to be point-for-point, but the Trojans
came out of the gates on fire. The UCLA men’s water polo team
allowed top-ranked USC to celebrate its 12-10 victory over the
third-ranked Bruins. This loss marks the third straight defeat that
the Trojans have handed UCLA this season.
Trojan driver Dan Cherrie vocalized his fire as he awaited the
opening whistle, "Lets take ’em out now!" Much to the dismay of
Bruin fans, the Trojans did exactly that.
Hrvoje Cizmic’s two-point field goal was netted seconds after
USC controlled the opening sprint. With the assistance of Simun
Cimerman’s field goal minutes later, USC jumped out to a 5-0 lead
in the first quarter and the Bruins never caught up. Although the
Bruins showed signs of fire during the next three quarters of play,
USC still came out on top.
The opening quarter’s disaster seemed to hang over UCLA, but the
large Bruin crowd that came in support of their defending national
champions kept their hopes high.
Bruins such as Jeremy Braxton-Brown, James Palda and Jim Toring
fought back and outscored the Trojans in each of the next three
quarters, and Bruin fans believed their team could pull out a
comeback. Unfortunately for UCLA, USC netted the fourth quarter’s
first two goals to extend their lead to a comfortable five points,
and the match was essentially over.
"We came prepared and ready to play," said Bruin driver Eric
Helfer. "We had momentum scoring four unanswered goals (in the
second quarter), but we couldn’t overcome the point deficit."
The Bruins did not seem discouraged about their play and are
optimistic about the upcoming MPSF tournament. "We’ll make a few
adjustments early this week, and then we head up north on
Wednesday," Helfer said.
USC enters the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference
tournament this weekend in Berkeley as the No. 2 seed with a 7-1
MPSF record (19-2 overall). The Bruins (21-4, 6-2 MPSF) head to
California’s Speiker Aquatics Complex as the No. 3 seed, and are
slotted for a probable rematch with their crosstown rival. Stanford
and Cal (No. 1 and No. 4 seeds, respectively) are lined up for
battle if they win their opening games of the eight-team
tournament.
The Bruins are now in a must-win situation going into the MPSF
tournament that starts Friday. If UCLA can take the conference
title, they will head to San Diego for the NCAA four-team
championship tournament.
Although there is a slim, outside chance that the defending
champs will be invited to the NCAA’s without the MPSF title, the
Bruins are not willing to put their destiny in hands of their
opponents. "We play our best under pressure, and we’ve got a lot of
experience that will help us through the tournament," Helfer
added.
In a conference dripping with talent, the pressure will be on
 and if you plan to attend the Bay Area tournament over the
holiday weekend, you better leave Tuesday to "beat the
traffic."