Women’s water polo rallies for close win over San Jose State
Senior attacker Sarah Orozco capped a fourth-quarter comeback with the go-ahead goal in top-ranked UCLA’s 7-5 win over No. 10 San Jose State.
Women's Water Polo
UCLA 7
SAN JOSE STATE 5
By Andrew Erickson
March 12, 2012 12:15 a.m.
Though the victorious UCLA women’s water polo team was able to hear Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” upon exiting the Spieker Aquatics Center, unfortunately, the process to earn this song wasn’t quite what the Bruins had hoped.
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, No. 10 San Jose State put a damper on the good spirits of a sizable UCLA home crowd for three quarters of play before being outscored 4-1 in the fourth quarter by the No. 1 Bruins, who charged back for their eighth consecutive victory, 7-5.
After a goal by junior attacker Gisselle Naranjo brought the game to a 1-1 tie at halftime, UCLA (14-1, 3-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) failed to maintain any momentum and found itself trailing San Jose State (12-8, 0-3) 4-3 after three quarters.
“They just had nothing to lose and were so fired up,” senior utility KK Clark said. “I think our mental preparation just wasn’t there and didn’t match that, so I think they just had the upper hand on that side.”
But as the team had previously shown in wins over No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 USC, UCLA simply did not know how to fade away in the fourth quarter.
This drive allowed UCLA to claw its way back with only minutes left to play on Saturday.
After a Clark penalty shot and a 6-on-5 goal by UCLA senior attacker Sarah Orozco brought the Bruins and Spartans to five goals apiece with 3:44 to play, it was once again Orozco’s turn to deliver offensively.
Finding herself with the ball in the middle of three defenders fewer than 30 seconds later, Orozco reached up and seemingly willed her shot over San Jose State goalie Meagan Minson, giving UCLA its first lead of the afternoon.
“I was thinking, “˜I need to score,'” Orozco said. “I was thinking, “˜I’m going to get up and stuff this goalie in the face because I need to score, and I need to win.’ I just saw it coming, and I had to make that shot.”
Though the Bruins were able to come from behind in the waning moments of the game yet again this weekend, they admit it was not their sharpest win of the season.
“We did like we have done in a few of the games ““ we adjusted, we calmed down, we relaxed a little bit more as the game went on,” coach Brandon Brooks said.
“We’ve shown good composure, and then we finally started to execute. But overall, I think it was a very poor performance.”
