Playing in spurts hurts w. water polo

Wednesday, May 1, 1996

Lack of consistency apparent to coach but not obvious in record
By Mark J. Dittmer

Daily Bruin Contributor

From the day they came home from their season-opening tournament
in La Jolla in February, it seemed a possibility that this year’s
Bruin women’s water polo team might just go undefeated.

Their 8-7 loss to California on Sunday was by far the biggest
shock of the tournament, and it was certainly the biggest surprise
in the Bruins’ season.

The view from up close provided a much different picture.

"We didn’t expect to finish undefeated," Bruin head coach Guy
Baker said. "We should’ve lost earlier in the season. We haven’t
played a consistently good game since that game we played at San
Diego State, right before finals."

The game he refers to was played during a road trip taken the
weekend of March 16. The focus of the weekend trip would be more on
studying than on anything else, and Baker had said before the meet
that he would be a very happy man if they won at San Diego
State.

The Bruins didn’t just win verses the Aztecs ­ they
dominated, coming home 7-2 winners ­ and Baker did indeed come
home a very happy man.

"This team is so young," he grinned. "I don’t know if they even
realize what’s going on (how impressive their play is)."

Since then, according to Baker, the Bruins have ebbed. He cites
a more recent home game against the Aztecs as one they should have
lost.

"We’ve been playing in spurts," Baker said. "We’ve talked about
it. But it’s hard to tell anybody that’s undefeated, and that’s
basically been dominating teams, that they’re playing in spurts
­ but take a look at the Stanford game."

UCLA beat Stanford 7-1 last Saturday in their 24th win of the
season, a win that fell just prior to the team’s first loss of the
season. In that game, there was a feeling of complete domination.
The Bruins took a 3-0 lead early on the fourth-best team in the
West, a team with one of the best defenses in the nation.

But take a closer look at the game, and the spurts become
visible. After leading 3-0 at the end of one quarter, the Bruins
scored just once in the second quarter. And after coming out
quickly with two early, second-half goals, the Bruins scored just
once the rest of the game. Spurts.

"I’m not sure how the team is going to respond to losing," Baker
said. "That’s the exciting thing about this team. They’re all so
young that I have no idea what to expect."