After a solid performance against No. 1 USC last weekend, the
No. 3 UCLA men’s water polo team resumes play as it travels
down the 405 Freeway on Saturday to face No. 7 Loyola Marymount at
noon.
The Bruins cannot afford to overlook LMU. There is potential for
a lot of gain from playing consistent water polo throughout the
entire game, which is something they have failed to do throughout
much of the season.
Saturday’s match has the makings of an opportunity to
bolster team confidence heading into the final half of the
away-game-filled Bruin schedule.
“As long as we play our game and we don’t lose
focus, I think things will be fine (against LMU),” redshirt
freshman Chay Lapin said. “But it is when we lose our focus
and when we start playing for ourselves that we have problems. We
can’t play for ourselves individually, but as a team. And I
think if we have that team chemistry, we will be fine.”
The non-conference match against LMU will give the Bruins the
opportunity to work on specific weaknesses they have been focusing
on in practice following their battle with USC last weekend.
Counter-attacks and 6-on-5 opportunities have been a great focus of
practice as of late.
“We have had really good practices this week, which is a
good sign,” coach Adam Krikorian said. “We are getting
better, starting to feel more confident. We are more concerned
about ourselves this week, just trying to get better on our
counter-attack and transition defense which we struggle with at
times.”
The match will also give the team, with many younger, less
experienced players, more playing time heading into the crucial
battle against conference rival No. 2 California the following
weekend.
“We have a lot of young guys that play,” redshirt
junior Justin Johnson said. “A lot of guys that are really
young and the more games they get under their belts, the better
they will be, the better choices they will make.”
Johnson netted two goals for the Bruins against the Trojans last
Saturday and has proven to be a bit of an offensive threat for the
Bruin team.
LMU is also slated to host the NCAA Tournament championships in
early December, and playing at the venue they may see later on may
provide an additional benefit to the Bruin team.
Typically, teams switch playing home and away every year. This
season the game was supposed to be at UCLA, but Krikorian opted to
travel to LMU for the opportunity to become familiar with the NCAA
Tournament venue.
“NCAAs are at their pool this year and that’s a big
reason why we are playing there this year,” he said.
“Not that we aren’t familiar with their pool, but it is
good to get the experience of playing there this season with the
team. I wanted to make sure we played there this season.”
And if the Bruins can continually improve the way they have been
doing all season long, they hope to play at LMU again come
December.