UCLA women’s water polo has competed in seven Wolverine Invitationals historically and has only lost once.
The Bruins have struggled in some of their nationwide invitationals over the program’s 17 seasons, but it seems that their weekends in Ann Arbor, Michigan, aren’t among those.
No. 2 UCLA (11-2) hasn’t competed in the event since 2013, but the team aims to continue its dominance against No. 5 Michigan, No. 15 Loyola Marymount, Bucknell University and George Washington.
“In my time here, we have not played George Washington or Bucknell, so that will be interesting,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “We might see a different style of play (a) little bit, but in the end it does come down (to) how we do what we do.”
The diversity that Bucknell and George Washington bring to this weekend’s invitational could potentially be a good mix-up for the Bruins. Getting a feel for how these two East Coast teams play will be a good test for the Bruins to work on their adaptability.
The Bruins have faced Michigan twice this season, most recently at last weekend’s UC Irvine Invitational, and faced Loyola Marymount once earlier in the season at San Diego’s Triton Invitational.
UCLA found success in last weekend’s match-up against Michigan behind strong shooting from junior utility Mackenzie Barr who netted four goals, along with redshirt junior center Alexa Tielmann and junior attacker Ashley Zwirner who each posted a hat trick last Saturday. The Bruins ended the first day of the tournament with a 14-8 win over the Wolverines.
“Both of those teams are very aggressive,” Zwirner said. “We have to do a really good job on our drive defense playing both of them because we can easily get distracted or lazy and they can definitely capitalize on those mistakes.”
The Bruins have struggled this season keeping up the intensity and consistency throughout the entirety of a game. UCLA often comes out strong in the opening and final quarter, but seems to lose momentum somewhere in the middle.
Prior to this weekend, UCLA fell just shy in the last two invitationals – the Triton invite and UC Irvine invite – and were overcome by the same foe, No.1 USC. The Bruins’ only two losses this season are to the Trojans, who have quickly taken the shape of the dark cloud that was once the Stanford Cardinal.
“Losing to USC is probably the worst feeling,” said senior goalkeeper Alex Mussleman. “I think, if anything, it just fuels the fire – it’s not okay to lose and it’s definitely helping us in practice with focus and energy.”
The Bruins said they learned in the Irvine Invitational that they need to improve – their execution has to be sharpened. They have to be more skilled, and their consistency must be more reliable.
“With ‘SC, they play good water polo. I think we’ve played good water polo as well but we have to play even better,” Brooks said. “We have to be a lot more consistent. We will play very well for three or four minutes and then we will play pretty poorly for two minutes. Against a team like ‘SC like that, it’s not going to cut it.”
USC will not be at the Wolverine Invitational, but this weekend serves as a great stepping stone of improving consistency in each game that UCLA will play.
“Matching (Michigan’s) intensity is going to be big,” Brooks said. “Playing against movement is going be big. We have to do a better job 5-on-6. Last time they were 4 for 5, so that’s huge. And for our side we have to execute.”
The Bruins have outscored the Wolverines 25-15 in the previous two encounters, but Michigan is coming off of wins over No. 3 California and No. 9 UC Irvine.
Only time will tell whether or not UCLA will continue its historic tradition of near perfection at the Wolverine Invite.
Email Shapiro at smshapiro@media.ucla.edu or tweet her @savannahshapiro.