Starting off 6-2 would be great for most college athletic teams.
For the UCLA men’s water polo team, though, it is a sign that
there is a lot of work to be done.
With a 10-9 semifinal loss to the No. 4 ranked Stanford Cardinal
in the SoCal Tournament last Sunday, the young and inexperienced
Bruins were dealt their first loss of the early season against the
team they beat in the national championship game last December. The
No. 1 ranked Bruins finished fourth in the tournament after a loss
to No. 2 ranked Cal in UCLA’s final game of the
tournament.
“I wasn’t happy at all with the way we let the
Stanford game slip away,” coach Adam Krikorian said.
“We made critical errors in key times in both the Stanford
and Cal games. I won’t be happy again until we are in the
same situation and finish a game the way we are supposed
to.”
The loss to Stanford came after two grueling overtime periods,
in which the Bruins and Cardinal scored a total of two goals. In
the third period, the Bruins and Cardinal faced sudden death
““ and the Bruins were the first to flinch as Thomas Hopkins
scored the winning goal for Stanford on a penalty shot 4:33 seconds
into the period.
The leading scorer for the Bruins was Grant Zider, who notched
four goals. Will Didinger, who started every game of the tournament
except for the opener against Bucknell, saved 11 shots on the
day.
To open the tournament, the Bruins beat Bucknell 12-2 and host
UC Irvine 9-7 on Saturday. After the loss to Stanford, the Bruins
went on to lose to Cal 8-7 in another tough overtime game. With
only 1:27 to go in regulation, the Bruins held a two point lead,
but the Bears went on to score two goals to send the game to
overtime, where they eventually prevailed. David Pietsch and Logan
Powell led the Bruins with two goals apiece, and Didinger accounted
for another 11 saves.
“Will played really well,” Krikorian said. “He
was the reason why we were in a position to win the Cal
game.”
Matt Kellogg started at goalie in the game against Bucknell, but
Krikorian did not want to start him in the games against
higher-quality opponents because Kellogg had been out of practice
due to a knee injury.
The Bruins opened their season by winning the BYU-Hawaii
Tournament, with two victories over BYU-Hawaii and two over
Chaminade. The first game against Chaminade featured a 30 point
outburst by the Bruins, albeit against an inferior opponent. The
Bruins last scored more than 30 points in a game against Washington
in 1971.
“It could have been even more,” Krikorian said.
“It was good to get in a game situation in the BYU-Hawaii
games, but we were hoping to have more of a competition with
Chaminade. It was good in the sense that it gave some guys a chance
to play.”
With a preseason No. 1 ranking, the Bruins were afforded a
certain respect due to their championship season last year, but
that ranking will change with the results of the SoCal Tournament.
The Bruins are now in a position where they have to prove that they
deserve to be considered as the top team in the nation.
“This is the first time I’ve been ranked No. 1 and
felt like an underdog,” Krikorian said. “We need to go
and prove that we are the No. 1 team. We should definitely be
hungry. That’s what I like about this team; they are always
excited to play and compete.”
Though Krikorian hates the word “potential,” it is
hard to avoid it in respect to this team. While the losses to
Stanford and Cal are discouraging for the team, last year’s
national champion Bruins finished the SoCal Tournament in exactly
the same way, losing to both Stanford and Cal to finish fourth.
Despite their early struggles against the main powers in the
conference, the Bruins are still confident in their ability to make
it back to the top.
“Of course we hope to follow in the footsteps of last
year’s team,” Krikorian said. “It’s hard to
see the positives after this weekend, but one is that we held our
own with the best teams in the country. If we’re not the best
team in the country, we’re right up there with
them.”