No team ever wants to lose, but the NCAA Championship-bound UCLA
men’s water polo team says it can build on its 7-6 loss to
Stanford in the finals of the MPSF Tournament. Because of their
regular season success, the Bruins were in the unique position of
not needing to win their conference tournament to qualify for the
NCAA Championship. But now, the pressure of continuing a historic
winning streak that ended at 18 games is over, and UCLA has learned
some things it needs to work on this week before its NCAA
Championship semifinal game against Princeton on Saturday.
“There’s a lot of positives and negatives we can take
from this,” senior attacker Albert Garcia said.
“We’re an experienced team and we shouldn’t have
lost, but we’re not invincible.” Just like the MPSF
Tournament, the NCAA Tournament will also be at Stanford’s
Avery Aquatic Center. While Stanford would have the home-pool
advantage in the NCAA Tournament final, UCLA has gained some
valuable experience playing the Cardinal in their home pool.
“We got a good feeling what it’s going to be
like,” UCLA coach Adam Krikorian said. “The big crowd,
the conditions, the weather, the TV timeouts.” Water polo
games are seldom televised, but last Sunday’s MPSF Tournament
final was televised on College Sports Television Network and
Sunday’s NCAA Championship game will be as well.
“There’d be times we’d huddle up and I’d
say to the guys, “˜Well, I just talked to you a couple of
minutes ago,'” Krikorian said. Playing at Stanford two
consecutive weekends may help UCLA in other areas as well.
“That helps us out from a visual standpoint in
practice,” Krikorian said. “It’s easier for them
to put themselves in the situation.” One area in the pool
where Krikorian and his players say they need to work on is 6-on-5
situations. Offensively, UCLA went 3-for-9 against Stanford, and
several of Stanford’s goals came on extra-man situations.
“We’re going to work on 6-on-5 situations,”
senior Ted Peck said. “That was the difference in the
game.” The two teams know each other very well, as they have
met four times already this year, splitting the season series. And
with one week to prepare for a likely rematch with Stanford in the
NCAA Championship game, the Bruins are in a position they
haven’t been in since Sept. 19 ““ coming back and trying
to learn from a loss. “We can always learn from the
mistakes,” Peck said. “We can use this to our
advantage.”
TIMES ANNOUNCED: The game times for the NCAA
Championships this weekend have been released. No. 2 seed UCLA will
play No. 3 Princeton at 3:30 p.m. and No. 1 Stanford will play No.
4 LMU at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Sunday’s Championship game will
be at 2 p.m.