Final exams may be at hand, but the UCLA women’s water polo team has already been passing every test thrown their way in recent weeks. This last weekend, the No. 3 Bruins (18-3, 5-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) defeated a pair of top 10 teams in No. 9 UC Irvine (11-5, 2-0 Big West) and No. 8 San Jose State (8-11, 1-4), as well as non-conference foe Santa Clara (10-10, 6-1 Western Water Polo Association) to extend their winning streak to eight games and remain in a first-place tie on top of the MPSF.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the way we’ve been playing,” UCLA coach Adam Krikorian said. “Ever since the tough stretch we endured at the Stanford Invitational, we’ve been playing exceptionally well in all phases of the game, and I still don’t think that we’ve peaked yet.”
The Bruins hosted UC Irvine last Thursday and came out firing on all cylinders against the overwhelmed Anteaters, winning the match 18-4. In what has been their modus operandi all season, UCLA jumped out to a 6-1 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, using an unselfish and balanced attack to keep UC Irvine on their heels the whole way.
Senior attackers Tanya Gandy and Katie Rulon and sophomore attacker Priscilla Orozco each scored a hat trick for the Bruins, and goalkeepers Brittany Fullen and Kristen Simonds only had to make five combined saves as UCLA’s defense led to numerous steals and transition opportunities.
“Our defense, particularly when we’ve been down a player, has just been superb,” Krikorian said. “On the man advantage, teams like to score around 30-40% of the time, and we’ve only been giving it up about 3-4% of the time. That’s been a major key to our success.”
The Bruins started off their trip to the Bay Area on Friday in successful fashion with a 14-6 victory over Santa Clara in a potential trap game sandwiched between the two top ten teams. On Saturday, UCLA traveled to San Jose State in a rematch of a Feb. 7 battle that saw the Bruins come out on top by a 13-6 margin. This time around, the Spartans kept it closer but were unable to improve on their scoring total from the previous matchup or slow down Gandy in losing 10-6.
Gandy matched her career-high with five goals, boosting her season total to 55 as she continues to be one of the primary focal points of the Bruins’ attack. Despite the recent run of success, Krikorian believes that the team still has more to show.
“I still don’t think we’ve maxed out to our full potential,” he said. “Sure we’ve been doing plenty of things very well, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t improve on them. We’re going to look at the rest of our season as an opportunity to build upon what we’ve been doing.”
Following this weekend’s slate, the Bruins have just four games remaining in the season. After a week and a half off, they’ll host Brown and Hartwick on March 26 in a pair of non-conference contests before closing the season against Stanford and USC, the two teams ranked ahead of them nationally and with whom they are tied with for first in the conference.
“We’ve now proven that we can handle all the teams ranked below us,” Krikorian said. “I am tremendously pleased with what we’ve accomplished to this point, and I think we’re ready for the home stretch. This is the fun part.”