Polo bids farewell to senior-leader Turner

Polo bids farewell to senior-leader Turner

UCLA co-captain leaves with fourth-place NCAA finish

By Esther Hui

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

When the UCLA-Cal men’s water polo game ended Sunday, most of
the players and crowd focused on the championship round between No.
1 Stanford and No. 2 USC. But while the roars from the spectators
at Belmont Plaza anticipated the soon-to-be national championship,
UCLA’s lone senior Scott Turner sat in the stands to reflect on the
end of his water polo career ­ a career that has been a huge
part of his life thus far.

"My last game was really emotional and I didn’t think it would
be," Turner said. "It was a unique feeling to realize when the
buzzer went off that that was my last game. It was really sad, I
broke down in tears, and was sitting there crying for a little
while. But then I realized I shouldn’t be crying, because I left my
career on a good note."

The NCAA tournament was indeed a great finish, especially
considering the adversity the Bruins had to overcome just in order
to qualify. As co-captain of the team and leading scorer for the
season, Turner was a huge force in the Bruins’ end of the year
success. He scored four goals in this weekend’s tournament alone,
two of which occurred in the defeat of Pepperdine on Friday night.
As Turner graduates, the Bruin team will lose perhaps its most
valuable member.

"I can’t commend Scott enough for what he’s done this year,"
UCLA assistant coach Matt Emerzian said. "There’s nothing harder
than being the only senior on a team. If you talk to him he’ll say
he could have been a better leader, but I think he did an awesome
job. His work ethic is amazing, and it’s so contagious throughout
the team. I think he has a lot to be proud of in his whole career
and especially this last season. He’s been a great player."

* * *

UCLA’s injury situation became almost a joke during team
introductions, as one by one its top players fell to injury and
hobbled out to the pool deck in crutches. First it was
national-team member leader Jim Toring, who broke his leg in
October. Two weeks later, hole-man Mark Sutter tore cartilage in
his knee, requiring surgery and a cast. Both players watched from
the bench during this weekend’s Stanford game as Adam Krikorian,
one of the team’s emotional leaders, was smacked in the face by a
defender, breaking his nose and sidelining him for the rest of the
weekend.

But, except for the graduation of Turner, the Bruins will be
back in 1995 in full force, and both Sutter and Toring plan to
return to try to put the frustration of this season behind
them.

"It gets you fired up to play next year, just knowing how well
we did this year," Sutter said. "At the same time it was really
hard watching Scott play in his last tournament. You want the best
for him, knowing he’s playing in his last games, but you can’t do
anything to help him, you can’t do anything to alter the score of
the game."

"It’s hard because you have to put all of your hopes and dreams
on other people," Toring said. "It’s frustrating. In a way it’s
been really emotionally draining for me because after losses you
have to sit there and know there was nothing you could have
done."