On a normal day, students living on the Hill can head over to the facilities in and around Sunset Canyon Recreation Center to swim, play tennis, or enjoy a peaceful, relaxing afternoon.
This weekend is a different story.
Collegiate sports fans from around the country have descended on Spieker Aquatic Center and the adjacent Sunset Canyon tennis courts for the women’s water polo and men’s tennis national championships.
Banners that hung around the pool announced the eight teams competing in this weekend’s single-elimination tournament.
In the opening round, the host team UCLA women’s water polo quickly soured any UC San Diego hopes of advancing to the final round on Sunday afternoon.
The third-seeded Bruins (24-4, 5-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) started off their NCAA campaign with a decisive 17-4 victory over the No. 10 Tritons (27-9, 3-0 Western Water Polo Association).
Friday’s matchup was the opening game of the NCAA Tournament held at UCLA’s home base – Spieker Aquatics Center.
This was the first time the Bruins played the Tritons this season. They have an all-time 23-3 record against the Tritons and it’s the third straight year the two Southern Californian teams have met in the quarterfinal.
The first quarter started off with a Triton goal less than a minute into the match. However, junior attacker Kelsey O’Brien responded with one of her own, followed by a point from redshirt junior center Alexa Tielmann just before the end of the first quarter.
Both teams seemed to take some time finding their offensive rhythm, with shots skipping past or ricocheting off of either cage.
“I thought after the first quarter, we were a little hurried,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “After that, we settled down and started playing our game much more and we looked good after that.”
UCLA didn’t just look good. With an overall 0.53 shooting percentage, the Bruins took turns firing on the Tritons, who finished with a 0.16 shooting percentage in comparison.
Tielmann scored another point to start the second quarter, giving UCLA a two-point lead. Although UC San Diego was able to get one past Musselman, junior utility Mackenzie Barr and O’Brien fired back right away to bring the score up to 5-2.
Freshman attacker Lizette Rozeboom fired a powerful shot past Triton goalkeeper Courtney Miller and notched another point before the buzzer sounded for halftime. With senior veteran Alex Musselman making large stops against the Triton offense, the Bruins ended the first half with a 7-3 lead.
Everyone knew how it would end from that point on.
“UCLA has an amazing counterattack. They’re fast. They’re machine-like. That’s where it started – one steal or one turnover on top and off they go,” said UC San Diego coach Brad Kreutzkamp. “The wheel just came off the wagon, certainly in the third quarter. It got away from us and it was time to start thinking about tomorrow.”
Musselman manned the goal for the first three quarters, making nine saves for UCLA. In the final quarter, freshman goalkeeper Carlee Kapana switched in and added one of her own.
Although the scoreboard clearly reflected how well they were doing, the Bruins maintained their focus and kept the energy high until time ran out.
“I thought it was really easy to keep the energy up,” said Tielmann. “We got some of our second lineup people in more and that’s just so exciting to see.”
UCLA advances to the semifinal tomorrow at 5:15 p.m. The team will face No. 3 Stanford, which wrapped up its first round match with a 12-5 victory against No. 7 UC Santa Barbara.