Last week UCLA men’s water polo head coach Adam Krikorian
declared, “From this point on, every game is the most
important.”
Though accurate, the statement seems odd since the No. 2 UCLA
team (10-6, 2-3 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) has matches
against No. 9 Long Beach State (13-13, 1-5 MPSF) Friday at Sunset
Recreation Center and UC Santa Barbara (6-15, 0-6 MPSF) the next
day in Santa Barbara.
The significance, though, does not lie in the opponents. Rather,
both games are conference matches, and it is crucial for the
team’s hopes to improve their MPSF post-season record.
“One concern is that we take these teams too
lightly,” Krikorian said. “We don’t care who
we’re playing. We just need to make sure we’re ready
and get the conference wins.”
Senior goalkeeper Brandon Brooks agrees.
“I expect two hard games even though the teams are not as
highly-ranked,” he said. “There are no easy games in
conference play because it weighs so heavily on everyone’s
position for the tournament.”
Winning the conference tournament (Nov. 21 ““ Dec. 1)
guarantees entry into the four-team NCAA Championships, and the
Bruins desperately want to lock that up to avoid praying for an
at-large bid.
Hence, they need to collect conference wins and secure better
position in the tournament, especially to avoid No. 1 Stanford in
the early rounds.
This weekend, UCLA hopes to repeat last Saturday when it
defeated UC Irvine. Like Irvine, Long Beach State features two star
scorers, sophomore two-meter player Erik Geoffroy and senior driver
Aaron Holloway.
UCLA has also begun emphasizing finishing games, as they have
noticeably slipped at the end of the fourth quarter and overtime at
times this season.
“It’s definitely not a lack of endurance,”
Krikorian said. “It’s a lack of concentration and focus
that starts in practice and carries over to the games. We’re
trying to add more pressure at the end of practice to better
prepare.”
“Our play is almost there,” added Brooks.
“We’re playing three and a half quarters each game and
we need to find that last piece to get to four.”