Familiar faces swarmed the pool at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center in Saturday’s scrimmage between the UCLA women’s water polo team and the USA National Team, but many were no longer wearing the same caps and suits.
All in all, a total of seven Bruins threw on a cap that had an American flag imprinted on the back as opposed to the familiar ‘B’.
Teammates against teammates, the two teams squared off against each other under the pines as the home squad fell to Team USA 13-4.
“It’s hard to be as focused or as dialed as I would be competing against another national team,” said USA junior attacker Rachel Fattal. “Here’s it’s like, ‘I know exactly what you are going to do, I know where all of you are going to shoot the ball, I know where you’re going to swim.’ Internationally, it’s like ‘I’m going to shut you down,’ and here it’s ‘Oh you’re my friend and I just want to play.’”
On the 17-player roster for the Olympic team, seven either formerly played at UCLA or are current students. Along with Fattal, juniors Kodi Hill and Alys Williams are taking a year off to prepare for the 2016 Olympics.
“It says a lot that the team is mostly comprised of UCLA people,” Fattal said. “It says a lot about what’s come through the program and what is coming through the program now and how great the water polo legacy is here.”
The Bruins kept the pace with the Olympic team at first, only trailing by two goals at the end of the first quarter. However, UCLA could not find an answer through the remainder of the game.
“We knew this was going to be a great test; these girls are the best in the world,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “I talked to my girls about competing, and it’s about us trying to get better right now.”
It was a big change to see USA goalkeeper and former UCLA standout Sami Hill now in the cage for the national team, but both senior goalkeeper Alex Musselman and freshman Carlee Kapana were able to make big saves for UCLA, making key blocks on penalty shots.
“I think we looked at the game as kind of a blessing,” Mussleman said. “We get an experience that not all college teams get, and we get to play against the best team.”
Musselman, now in her senior year, was able to play against her now-USA teammates, but was also able to play against her younger sister, Maddie Musselman, who will be attending UCLA next year.
“It was fun to get a chance to play against them and my sister,” the elder Musselman said. “She was shooting against me and that was really fun, and it’s great that my best friends are playing with my little sister. It’s definitely a cool experience.”
The heightened and quickened pace of the game was an adjustment for UCLA, as the national team stuck to its strengths of speed and agility .
“Team USA made the game look really easy at moments and we looked really lost at times, but that’s why we wanted to play them,” Brooks said. “That’s why we wanted to play a really good opponent that is training full time right now.”
The scrimmage against Team USA allowed the Bruins to focus on what they need to work on.
“I think that we are way too inconsistent. We did some great things at times, but then it would take a lot of energy out of us,” Brooks said. “We would have structure sometimes, but a lot of times we would not have structure. The energy level and constancy has got to be better; we got to be more disciplined.”