It’s the same old story for the UCLA men’s water
polo team.
For the sixth time in seven meetings, Stanford defeated the
Bruins ““ this time, 7-4 ““ in the quarterfinals of the
NorCal Tournament at the Avery Aquatic Center on the Stanford
campus.
Despite the disappointment of losing to Stanford, the Bruins
were able to salvage a fifth-place finish in the tournament,
defeating No. 6 Long Beach State and No. 5 UC San Diego.
“We’re happy with the weekend and our 3-1
performance, which was better than how we did in the SoCal
Tournament (last weekend), going 2-2,” head coach Adam
Krikorian said. “The team is improving and we’re making
positive strides.”
Heading into Saturday’s game against defending national
champion Stanford, No. 7 UCLA (8-4) had a season-high three-game
winning streak, and junior driver Brett Ormsby had a streak of 41
consecutive games with one or more goals, dating back to Nov. 3,
2001.
Both streaks came to an end Saturday.
The Bruins found themselves down 4-2 heading into the third
quarter. Junior driver Peter Belden tried to the keep the Bruins
close with his goal at the 1:08 mark and goalie Joseph Axelrad did
his best in the cage with 10 saves.
But it just wasn’t enough as Stanford’s defense held
the Bruins scoreless in the fourth.
With two Cardinal goals in the final period, Stanford pulled
away from UCLA, winning 7-4.
“We were pretty confident going into the game, but we had
a hard time executing offensively,” Ormsby said. “Both
teams were playing pretty well defensively, and it was a low
scoring game.
“I felt like I didn’t get any good looks at the cage
and when I did have my looks, I couldn’t put it away,”
he added.
But while the Bruins could have crumbled, they instead showed
tremendous resolve. On Sunday, UCLA defeated LBSU 11-10 in overtime
before capturing fifth place overall with a 6-4 win over UCSD.
The victories were only possible because of the offensive
production of junior drivers Ted Peck and Josh Hewko.
Against LBSU, UCLA led by one goal in the waning moments of the
fourth quarter, but the Spartans’ junior driver Erik Geoffroy
sent the game into extra minutes.
Geoffroy notched his game-high fifth goal in the first overtime
period, but the Bruins’ Peter Belden matched Geoffroy’s
goal with less than a minute to go, keeping the score locked at 10
apiece.
Peck, who led the Bruins with four goals, put UCLA ahead for
good.
“It was great that we could come back after Stanford beat
us and pull off a victory against Long Beach,” Ormsby said.
“Our team effort with balanced scoring was key to our
success.”
Prior to the Stanford loss, UCLA defeated UC Santa Barbara,
9-7.
“We have yet to see everyone play to the best of their
ability,” Krikorian said. “We still have a lot of room
to improve and grow, but we’ll only get better as the season
progresses.”