Just by mentioning Bruins and Trojans in the same sentence, tradition states that fans be ready for a showdown. In collegiate women’s water polo, however, this is no ordinary rivalry game. This battle of Los Angeles is always a battle of giants.
After the No. 1 Bruins face off against the No. 3 Women of Troy at 5 p.m. Friday, one of two very impressive streaks will have ended.
UCLA has not lost a match in 28 tries, but that stretch will be tested in USC’s McDonald’s Swim Stadium, where a visiting college team has not beaten the Trojans in an astounding 42 games.
UCLA (20-0, 6-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) is coming off a successful weekend home stand, notching important conference wins against the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal and No. 10 San Jose State.
Meanwhile, USC (12-4, 5-0) completed a weekend sweep of its own, demolishing Pacific 18-4 after pulling out a tough one-goal victory against California the day before.
“They’re coming off a big win up at (Berkeley), which is a tough place to play,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “So, I’m sure they’re going to be riding high and pretty confident going into Friday’s game.”
UCLA rejected USC’s first upset attempt earlier this year in the final of the Stanford Invitational, with a score of 8-4.
“They did a really good job defensively,” Krikorian said. “I think that’s probably their strength. They have a couple of goalies that are both very good.”
Sophomore Tumua Anae and junior Whitney Morgan, listed at 5 feet 11 inches and 6 feet respectively, co-anchor the goalkeeper position for USC and have dominated the goal so far with a combined 10 saves per game.
Like the Bruins, USC has a team heavy with promising young talent. With underclassmen compromising two-thirds of the Trojans roster, their biggest threats have come from some unlikely places.
“They have a lot of young players that we hadn’t really ever seen before,” Krikorian said. “It was good for us to get a feel for some of their younger players and what they like to do and what they can personally bring to the table.”
Young teams, if given good coaching and steady competition, tend to improve at a quicker pace than most teams.
That is exactly what the Women of Troy have been up to this season, which makes them dangerous even to a team that has already bested them once before.
“I saw them play two weeks ago and thought they were a different team than they were three weeks prior (against us),” Krikorian said.
The Bruins hope they can stay ahead of that pace, especially with all that is at stake. Although UCLA has won the last seven matches of the rivalry, there are no sure things in this series. In the last decade, neither of these two teams has been very far from the national championship hunt.
“The really unique thing about our UCLA-USC rivalry, as compared to some of the other sports here (is that) we’re both vying for a championship,” Krikorian said. “We’re typically (ranked) No. 1 and No. 2, or No. 2 and No. 3. That doesn’t happen in all the other sports. That’s pretty rare. So you add that along with the fact that we are a natural rivalry and that makes it extra special.”