Bruins hope to have another shot at NCAA title
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 19, 2010 1:11 a.m.
The UCLA men’s water polo team almost reached the summit of the collegiate water polo world in 2009, but not before a few slipups while trying to climb the mountain.
Now, the team is back with the images of last year’s 7-6 loss to USC in the national championship game still fresh in the players’ minds. But it’s a new year and a new season for UCLA, which means the journey starts at base camp.
“You pretty much have to start over year after year, which is pretty daunting after coming off a loss like that,” redshirt junior attacker Cullen Hennessy said. “All the work that you put in, you’ve got to put it back in and work even harder and put more into it.”
The Push to Princeton
After UCLA suffered three straight losses to the top three teams in the country last year, coach Adam Wright thought it was time to make some changes.
“We changed the training and became a lot tougher, but also with the expectation that even with the change in training, we still have to be able to compete in every game and put ourselves in a chance to win,” Wright said.
The Bruins’ hopes of getting the one at-large spot to the four-team NCAA Tournament were all but dashed, so if they wanted to get to Princeton, N.J., for the tournament, Wright knew his team had to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.
The results of the new training regimen showed, and UCLA, seeded fourth, won three games in three days at the MPSF Tournament at USC to earn the automatic qualifying spot.
The Bruins may have won the toughest conference tournament in the country, but a week later, they came up short against a USC team that Wright described as “one of the better college teams in a long time.” The Trojans’ second straight title followed their undefeated 2008 campaign.
Wright, now in his second year, knows how much work it takes to win a national championship ““ he did so twice as a player at UCLA. Now his players know what it takes to get close and are out to do one better than last year.
“To go to the finals and lose by one to USC, of all teams, is pretty bitter,” senior attacker Ben Hohl said. “So we’re back this year for another shot. It’s huge motivation to really come up in the end this time.”
Looking Ahead
Any talk about this year’s offense begins and ends with Hohl. The lefty is the leader of the team, maybe not vocally, but definitely by example. He was second on the team with 40 goals in 2009, including nine over the three MPSF Tournament matches, and earned a second-team all-MPSF selection last year.
MPSF Player of the Year and 2009 leading scorer Scott Davidson was lost to graduation, but plenty of firepower still remains for the Bruins. Hohl, Hennessy, and sophomores Griffin White and Josh Samuels lead the attacking corps. The four players together tallied 128 out of the team’s 305 goals last year.
The middle will be manned by redshirt senior center Jacob Murphy and redshirt junior Brett Hays, two players who both saw extensive playing time last year.
“My role has always been to get in there and hold position and play defense and draw ejections,” Murphy said. “It hasn’t changed since last year. We don’t have Cole Consani anymore, so I look forward to filling the void that he left.”
As if the position of goalkeeper didn’t come with enough pressure already, the man who wins the starting job will have to follow in the footsteps of career saves leader Chay Lapin. Wright has yet to decide on a starter between redshirt sophomore Matt Rapacz and redshirt junior Andrew Mesesan.
“Here’s the bottom line: Both guys have to be able to play, no matter what,” Wright said. “If a guy’s not playing well, the other guy is going to be going in. That could be in the middle of a quarter.”
The team will also have a noticeable international presence this year, with Brazilian senior Emilio Vieira returning and two Italian freshmen, Cristiano Mirarchi and Aimone Barabino, in line for major playing time.
Keys to Success
UCLA was tabbed as the No. 2 team in the country, behind California, in the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s first poll of the year. That might not mean much to the team, but what probably holds a little more weight is that the competition appears to be bit weaker.
No. 3 Stanford will be without longtime standouts in the Wigo twins, Janson and Drac, and goalie Jimmie Sandman.
No. 4 USC lost nine seniors, including U.S. Olympian J.W. Krumpholz, and features a 2010 squad with no seniors.
But, as Wright knows, the best conference in the country is cutthroat.
“With the Mountain Pacific, every game is do-or-die,” he said. “One game can cost you that at-large berth. One game in the tournament can cost you being out (of NCAAs).”
The first test comes in the form of the 16-team NorCal Tournament, held Sept. 18 and 19 in Pleasant Hill and Berkeley. It will be the first chance UCLA will have to play the other teams in the top four.
“The NorCal Tournament is definitely a measuring stick, so after that I mean, we’ll have a better grip on (our team),” Hennessy said.
Wright’s main goal is to bring back the first title to UCLA since 2004. But coming off a year in which the team debuted a state-of-the-art stadium and enjoyed a thrilling run of success, he also wants to see his team’s play transcend the pool.
“We want to be one of the big sports on campus, by the way we conduct ourselves outside the water, by the way we conduct ourselves in the water. Because I really believe it’s a fun game to watch,” Wright said. “That really means that we have to be successful too, because people want to see a winning team.”
