Loss to ¹SC at NorCal ends 13-win streak
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 16, 1996 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 17, 1996
WATER POLO:
No. 1 spot is lost but scoring well balanced at tournamentBy
Rick Banks
Daily Bruin Contributor
Last weekend’s Northern California Water Polo Tournament proved
to be a streak-stopper for the UCLA men’s water polo team.
Sunday’s loss to USC in the championship game was the first for
the Bruins this season. As a result of the defeat, UCLA’s record
fell to 13-1 overall. Because it was a tournament game and did not
count in the league standings, the Bruins’ Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation record remained at 2-0.
UCLA’s position atop the polls also fell as USC edged the Bruins
for the No. 1 spot this week. The Bruins earned the ranking in the
preseason polls and have held the position through the fifth week
of the season.
* * *
The tournament also saw Corbin Graham’s scoring streak of 10
straight games come to a halt. Graham did not break into the
scoring column in the team’s 15-3 win over first-round opponent
Occidental.
Graham did come back to tally five goals in the next three
games, including three in the 9-6 win over Stanford in the
championship semifinal.
With five goals in the tournament, Graham raised his
team-leading point total to 24, putting him six points away from
matching his total for last season.
* * *
The Bruins did get some encouraging news out of their NorCal
experience. Redshirt freshman Brian Bent pushed his point total to
20 on the season with a seven-goal performance in the four
games.
Bent led the Bruins in scoring in the championship game with
three points and tied with Jim Toring for the team lead in the two
days of action.
UCLA’s offense remained balanced throughout the tournament, with
13 different players scoring in the four games over the
weekend.
* * *
The 13 goals surrendered against USC are the most surrendered by
UCLA this season and more than the most given up by last year’s
squad.
Prior to the game against the Trojans, the Bruins had given up
11 to UC Irvine, but won that game 13-11.
Last season, the most goals allowed by UCLA was 11, a total they
gave up twice in their championship run.
* * *
At this time last season, the Bruins had a 9-4 overall record,
5-0 in the MPSF. Two of those four losses were against UC Irvine.
The other two came at the hands of Pepperdine. UCLA will host the
Waves in their first home game of the season Saturday.
This season, the Bruins have already beaten Pepperdine twice.
The first win was a 16-5 thrashing in the SoCal Tournament.
The Waves played a tougher game in the NorCal Tournament, tying
the game at 8-8 in the fourth period before surrendering a goal
with 33 seconds remaining to lose 9-8.
