UCLA men’s water polo wins three straight at Inland Empire Classic

Three overwhelming victories on Saturday weren’t enough to satisfy UCLA men’s water polo.

“We played okay,” said junior attacker Paul Reynolds. “We could’ve played better defense.”

With consecutive UCLA successes against Redlands, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Whittier, the Inland Empire Classic represented a final opportunity for the Bruins to grow before important games against stronger opponents in the Bay Area next week.

“It’s less than ideal to play three games in a day,” said coach Adam Wright. “The reason we do it is I want the guys … to learn how each other move, they have to learn how each other communicate.”

These tactical skills are very important, Wright said, because UCLA “was a completely different team” between the first and the last games.

Opening against Redlands, UCLA had a slow start, only leading 2-1 by the end of the first quarter. The game, which ended in a 19-2 UCLA victory, was only a springboard to the next 20-3 victory against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

The final game, however, sported a three-quarter shutout, with Whittier scoring only two points in the last quarter compared to UCLA’s total 27.

“Our first game we came out a little slow … but we built on each game and started to play better,” said senior defender Chris Wendt. “We approach every game the exact same way and try to get a pattern down … especially for the new guys.”

This pattern, which involves maintaining offensive and defensive form, is important to perfect now, when opponents, as Reynolds said, are good for their division and conference, but not as high of a caliber as upcoming opponents.

Additionally, the players said they’ve learned to increase the intensity of their play, a factor they felt characterized the differences in Saturday’s three games and a factor they hope to bring to future competitions – most notably the NorCal Invitational this upcoming weekend.

“We have one more week to see how good we can get before we go up to NorCal,” Wendt said.