San Diego State hosts UCLA women’s water polo in first conference game of the season
Women’s Water Polo
SDSU
Saturday, 12 p.m.
San Diego, Calif.
No TV info
Info: The Bruins will be in San Diego this weekend for a matchup with the Aztecs.
By Andrew Erickson
Feb. 17, 2012 1:14 a.m.
Even though San Diego State’s Aztec Aquaplex is known for its tendency to have rowdy crowds that frustrate visiting teams, the UCLA women’s water polo team hopes this weekend’s visit to San Diego is not its last of the season.
If the No. 3 Bruins make the trip down the 405-South again in May, it will mean they have reached the NCAA Championships.
UCLA (7-1) hopes to bring a championship-level intensity this weekend in its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matchup of the season against the No. 9 Aztecs (8-1).
The Bruins will likely have their hands full with San Diego State’s potent offense, which has scored 10-plus goals six times this season and whose only defeat came in the form of a 9-8 heartbreaker against No. 7 UC Irvine last weekend at the UCSD Triton Invitational.
“San Diego State is a dynamic team, there’s a lot of movement, a lot of post-ups, which isn’t your normal, static water polo game, so that’s different,” said coach Brandon Brooks.
“Everybody’s got to be alert all the time. San Diego is always a tough place to play.”
The Bruins look to draw on the momentum they gained in their first home victory of the season against Cal Baptist last Saturday. UCLA was in control the entire game, allowing almost everyone on the team to experience playing time and earning the Bruins a comfortable 11-5 win.
“It’s a really great thing that people who put the work in every day get those opportunities,” said senior utility KK Clark.
“It’s important that starters and people who play in the beginning of the games fulfill their roles by letting their teammates get in and play by putting teams away early, so that was cool.”
Converting on six-on-five opportunities has been a focus of the team recently, and it showed on Saturday, as the Bruins were able to find mismatches in Cal Baptist’s defense and execute early on in the game. UCLA hopes to have the same kind of success this weekend.
“I think six-on-five is a really underrated component of the game,” said senior attacker Hannah Sebenaler.
“They are opportunities that we should and really need to take advantage of, so if we can score 50 percent of those this weekend, it would definitely be in our favor.”
What was even more impressive than hat tricks by both Sebenaler and Clark on Saturday was the Bruins’ ability to communicate on both sides of the ball.
UCLA demonstrated its strength to call out specific defenses and recognize ball movements last weekend but will need to keep working on this all-too-important facet of the game as far more hostile crowds await the team in the coming months.
“Communication is definitely one of the components we definitely focus on a lot during practice, and our team does everything together,” Sebenaler said. “We definitely know how to communicate in and outside of the pool. I think it shows in general and hopefully it shows this weekend.”
Beginning MPSF play this weekend, the Bruins are aware their path to the conference title is only going to become more difficult. The No. 9 Aztecs are the highest-ranked team in the eight-team conference.
“We have to understand what it takes to get a win,” Brooks said. “Every team in the MPSF is good, every game is contested.”
