Men’s water polo bounces back from loss against USC with a win over UCSB
Junior utility Josh Samuels helped the Bruins rebound after a loss to USC with a goal in UCLA’s win over UC Santa Barbara the next day.
Men’s water polo
USC 9
UCLA 6
UCLA 11
UC Santa Barbara 4
By Emma Coghlan
Nov. 21, 2011 1:34 a.m.
Two games marked by opposites.
A day game versus a night game. An exuberant crowd versus a complacent one. A game backed with emotion and frustration versus a game of calm concentration. A win versus a loss.
After a dramatic 9-6 loss to USC on Friday night, the team had to come back emotionally and physically against UC Santa Barbara.
The Bruins defeated the Gauchos 11-4 Saturday afternoon.
“It was a pride thing,” freshman attacker Paul Reynolds said.
“Last night, we just didn’t do well and we had to come out positive. … Last night, I don’t know. It was upsetting.”
There was a rowdy contingent of Trojan fans in attendance at the Spieker Aquatics Center on Friday.
No matter how many times the announcer asked for the crowd’s attention, they continued their chants of “U-S-C,” quieting only when the speaker was requesting a moment of silence for the late Walt Hazzard.
When it was evident in the fourth quarter that USC would triumph, the fans were outspoken with cheers of “This is our house!”
Redshirt senior attacker Cullen Hennessy called the rowdy USC crowd “pretty standard” for a game against the Trojans.
Emotions ran high on Friday with each team’s head coach being shown a yellow card.
Junior attacker Griffin White was ejected from the game for a major misconduct after he continued fighting with USC freshman Kostas Genidounias after Genidounias was called for the penalty.
“You come in knowing … emotions are going to run high,” Hennessy said. “You just try to bottle those, we did alright, but we could’ve done better.”
The Bruins were somber postgame on Friday. Most just sat around silently, and all appeared to take the loss to heart.
“That’s hard to swallow, it’s never easy to own up to your mistakes and admit you didn’t play your best,” Hennessy said.
UCLA struggled to produce field blocks on Friday, leaving all the defensive work to redshirt junior goalie Matt Rapacz, who with 16 saves, did all he could.
“(USC) did everything we thought they were going to do,” junior Josh Samuels said.
“We missed four field blocks and lost by three goals. That says a lot.”
Coach Adam Wright agreed that the team’s missed blocks played a big role in their loss.
“We’ve gotta do a better job, the ball’s swinging all over the place with no blocks in place,” he said.
On Saturday, the Bruins appeared calm, all traces of Friday’s heartbreak erased.
Eight players scored for the Bruins, including Reynolds with a hat trick and White with two.
The game was fast, yet not nearly as frantic as the one against USC. The team appeared to know exactly what they needed to do to execute their game plan.
Reynolds described Friday night’s loss as a “gut check” for the Bruins.
“We didn’t show up (Friday). … We had a mindset that we have to get better now. The defense, we took it personally (Saturday). We didn’t take it personally (Friday).”
This weekend decided the seeding for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament. The Bruins took a No. 3 seed, behind USC and California.
