The UCLA men’s water polo team has gone undefeated during
the MPSF conference season. The Bruins have won 16 games in a row.
They have an overall record of 21-2, the best in the country. They
have earned the national No. 1 ranking. They lead the season series
against No. 2 Stanford 2-1. They lead the season series against No.
3 USC 2-0. Looking at all the facts and scenarios, it would be safe
to say UCLA has virtually clinched a berth to the NCAA Tournament,
which is hard to do in water polo because only one at-large team is
invited to the tournament, along with three conference tournament
winners. But there’s still the very remote possibility that
if the Bruins slip in the conference tournament, they won’t
make the NCAA Tournament. “I don’t even want to think
about it,” said senior goalkeeper Joseph Axelrad about the
Bruins’ bid to the NCAA Tournament. “Nothing is for
sure. I want to win the next three games.” The approaching
games comprise the MPSF Tournament over Thanksgiving weekend. The
reality is that the Bruins will probably get the lone at-large bid
into the NCAA Tournament should they lose at the MPSF Tournament.
The main criteria the NCAA uses to pick the at-large team is
regular season performance, followed by head-to-head records among
teams the selection committee is considering and how well the team
finishes at the end the season. Clearly, UCLA has done well in all
three categories, and it would take an improbable scenario for the
Bruins to miss the NCAA Tournament even if they do not win the MPSF
Tournament. UCLA coach Adam Krikorian did, however, find one
scenario in which his team could miss out. If the Bruins get upset
in the MPSF semifinals and Stanford gets upset as well, the two
teams would meet in the MPSF third-place game. If Stanford beats
the Bruins there, the season series would be tied at 2-2. The two
teams would have similar overall records, and one of the two would
have to be left out of the NCAA Tournament, as a different MPSF
team would have won the MPSF Tournament. “In that case, it
would pretty much be 50-50 on who gets in,” Krikorian said.
The likelihood of both teams being upset in the semifinals are
highly improbable because they have each only lost one game to a
team other than each other all year. If the No. 1 seed Bruins
defeat No. 8 seed UC Santa Barbara in the first round, they would
play either No. 4 Long Beach State or No. 5 UC Irvine in the
semifinals. The Bruins are 4-0 against those two teams, although a
couple of the games against UC Irvine were only decided by less
than two goals. No. 2 Stanford (19-3, 7-1 MPSF) plays No. 7
Pepperdine in the first round, and would play either No. 3 USC or
No. 6 California. Stanford split against USC and beat California in
both meetings so far. One other game that could influence this
scenario is that of Stanford playing California this weekend. If
the Golden Bears upset the Cardinal, Stanford would have two more
overall losses than UCLA, which would in effect give UCLA the
at-large bid even if the previous scenario were to happen.
ORMSBY HONORED: UCLA senior attacker Brett
Ormsby was named the MPSF/Mikasa Co-Player of the week for his
seven goals last weekend.