In a sport where making it to the NCAA playoffs is extremely
difficult, the UCLA men’s water polo team has put itself in a
great position to get into the postseason. In collegiate water
polo, only four teams make the NCAA Championships ““ three
conference tournament winners and one at-large team. The at-large
team has always come from the MPSF because the conference always
contains several of the top teams in the nation. And with the
top-ranked Bruins (17-2, 5-0 MPSF) undefeated in MPSF play with
just three matches left, they are in good position to claim an NCAA
berth, even if they do not win the conference tournament. The
Bruins had a big win against rival No. 2 Stanford (15-3, 4-1) on
Saturday and beat Long Beach State on Sunday to keep their perfect
conference mark and extend their winning streak to 13 games. And
because of No. 3 USC’s surprising loss to UC Irvine (13-8,
3-2) on Saturday, UCLA can assure itself of the MPSF regular season
title and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament if the Bruins
win any two of their final three matches. “This weekend puts
us in a great position,” UCLA coach Adam Krikorian said.
“We still have three left. We feel like if we win all three,
we would secure a position in the NCAAs.” But just winning
two should be enough for the team to get the NCAA tournament bid.
Accomplishing that would secure the regular season title, which is
the main factor the NCAA selection committee looks at. The Bruins
also currently have the edge in the head-to-head matchups against
Stanford and USC, the next two best teams in the conference.
“This puts us in a great position,” senior attacker
Brett Ormsby said. “Winning the season series against
Stanford is huge.” But UCLA does have a relatively tough
schedule left ““ or about as tough as it could be without
having to play Stanford. The Bruins will play at No. 4 UC Santa
Barbara (17-8, 2-3) this Saturday and at USC (17-3, 3-2) the
following Saturday before closing out their regular season at home
against No. 7 UC Irvine. “The next three games will all be
difficult,” Krikorian said. The Bruins have beaten UC Irvine
in their previous two meetings this year, but have not yet played
UCSB this season.
HEWKO ON FIRE: Josh Hewko scored four goals
over the weekend, including a hat trick on Sunday against Long
Beach and two assists to break out of a recent slump. “Good
for him,” Krikorian said. “He’s been struggling
lately, and he had a rough last three weeks. He’s been hard
on himself and it’s good to see him get out of a funk.”
Hewko narrowly missed a fourth goal against Long Beach when one of
his shots in the fourth quarter hit the bar.
LETDOWN AVOIDED: During their long winning
streak, the Bruins had developed a pattern of narrowly escaping
lesser opponents following a big win. In the last few weeks, the
team had beaten UC Davis and Pepperdine by just a combined three
goals. But the Bruins came out strong against Long Beach State
after the big win over Stanford, beating the 49ers 11-6. “It
was huge to avoid a letdown today,” Hewko said. “We had
to show up today after beating Stanford and we did.”