A state-of-the-art playing facility, a new skipper and an 18-man recruiting class: Welcome to the 2009 men’s water polo season.
September 26 marks a huge date on the UCLA calendar, not only because it represents the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener against UC Irvine, but also because it will be the inaugural event in the brand new Spieker Aquatic Center. Named for lead donor and former Bruin swimmer Tod Spieker and his wife Catherine, the complex will be a grand spectacle complete with massive pool facilities, a larger seating capacity and an LED scoreboard.
With former coach Adam Krikorian moving on to coach USA Water Polo, Bruin alumnus and US Olympian Adam Wright has taken over a program that always ranks among the country’s elite, but hasn’t won a national title since 2004.
A longtime assistant for both the men’s and the women’s teams at UCLA, Wright will look to bring his own energy and experience to the table while maintaining the emphasis on defense that was so strong under his predecessor.
“We’ve done so much work on (the defensive side of the ball),” Wright said. “The majority of our early season workouts were all about defensive positioning, playing 5-on-6, and improving the counterattack.”
If Wright is the new captain of this ship, redshirt senior goalkeeper Chay Lapin is its trusty anchor. This season will mark the fourth that Lapin has made significant contributions between the pipes for the Bruins. He comes into his senior campaign having earned second-team All-MPSF honors in each of his first three seasons. Lapin enters the 2009 season having undergone offseason surgery, but appears fit to once again command UCLA’s backline.
“He sets the tone for our defense, and we are depending upon him to have a really big year for us,” Wright said. “We will have some younger guys in the water, and we need him to be the backbone of our defense.”
Wright’s acknowledgement of youth is no understatement: the enormous recruiting class is headlined by Griffin White and Josh Samuels, CIF Southern Section Players of the Year in Divisions I and II, respectively.
White, Samuels and the rest of the newcomers should help offset the loss of a stalwart graduating class highlighted by Krsto Sbutega, who led the team with 50 goals last season and was the focal point of the offensive attack.
As expected, the Bruins showed off a balanced scoring approach in rolling through last weekend’s season-opening Princeton Invitational in New Jersey. UCLA won all five games on the east coast by a combined score of 81-25. In a 17-4 victory over Princeton, the Bruins had 14 different players tally a goal.
UCLA enters the season ranked No. 3 in the nation, behind a pair of MPSF rivals in USC and Stanford. The Trojans are coming off a national-championship-winning season that saw them go undefeated at 29-0.