STANFORD “”mdash; One thing UCLA tried to do in Sunday’s
championship game against Stanford was what every team tries to do
against the Cardinal ““ stop Tony Azevedo. Widely considered
to be the top collegiate player in the country and one of the best
players in the world, Azevedo, who leads the nation in goals with
80, has presented problems to every team that has had to guard him.
But for UCLA on Sunday, the Bruins limited Azevedo’s presence
in the pool and won the 2004 NCAA Championship because of it.
Azevedo, a 2000 and 2004 Olympian, didn’t score until the
last minute of regulation, and didn’t score in either of the
two overtimes. He was defended closely by the Bruin senior trio of
Peter Belden, Albert Garcia and Brett Ormsby throughout the game,
and goalie Joseph Axelrad also made some key saves on
Azevedo’s shots. “Clearly UCLA’s focus was to
stop Tony,” Stanford coach John Vargas said. “Where we
tried to post up, there were two or three players on him. I
don’t blame them. Tony’s a great player.” Despite
the defensive pressure, Azevedo did have a great chance to score in
the second half when he was one-on-one against Axelrad. But
Axelrad, who finished with eight saves, stopped both of
Azevedo’s attempts at goal. “Our defense is unmatched
and unrivaled by anyone else,” said Axelrad, who, as usual,
refused to take any credit for his team’s success. While the
defense played well overall, and not just on Azevedo, UCLA coach
Adam Krikorian also gave a lot of the credit to his goalie.
“Joe is one of the best guys I have ever known,”
Krikorian said. “It couldn’t have happened to a better
guy. He loves that challenge of facing Azevedo. What you guys
don’t get to see is Joe spends a lot of time looking at game
tape and working on his mental preparation.”
ORMSBY NAMED MVP: UCLA senior attacker Brett
Ormsby was named the NCAA Tournament’s Most Valuable Player
after scoring two goals in Sunday’s championship game and one
in Saturday’s semifinal against Princeton. Ormsby, a 2004
Olympian, won his first championship at UCLA in his last game as a
Bruin. He also put himself at the top of many all-time career lists
at UCLA, despite consistently being overlooked in favor of Olympic
teammate Azevedo in the national water polo spotlight.
“Brett’s been overshadowed by Tony in the past, but
today it’s his turn,” Krikorian said.
SKIP SHOTS: Six different Bruins were honored
on the NCAA Men’s All-Tournament Teams. Ormsby, Albert Garcia
and Axelrad made the first team while Michael March, Ted Peck and
Josh Hewko made the second team. … 3,044 fans filled
Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center for Sunday’s
championship game, even though the stadium holds only 2,500 fans.
At least a few hundred of those fans were Bruin fans who made the
trip up north … With Sunday’s championship, Krikorian is
now tied for the most titles among active coaches (three) with UC
Irvine’s Ted Newland.