No. 1 UCLA men’s water polo anticipates challenges at SoCal Invitational
By Sari Zureiqat
Oct. 10, 2013 12:27 a.m.
At about the halfway point of the season, UCLA men’s water polo has made winning look easy.
The team’s 15th victory of the season, against UC San Diego last Friday, doesn’t look too shabby when placed along the team’s zero losses – especially with the average win outscoring the opponent by over 10 points.
For UCLA, the challenge will re-emerge at the SoCal Invitational in Irvine, Calif., this weekend – a deja vu experience of the NorCal Invitational earlier in the season with similar, high-level teams.
Except this time, UCLA – a winner of the NorCal Invitational and ranked No. 1 – has already left its mark. The team said it wants no less than to win the tournament.
“Practice is intense. We’re going to be focused and ready for this weekend,” said senior center Lucas Reynolds.
Practice, said senior utility Aimone Barabino, had been taxing leading up to last weekend’s satisfying victory against UC San Diego. This week, however, practice is more strategy-based rather than endurance-based.
Coach Adam Wright noted that with such a long weekend ahead of multiple games per day, the physical work “will come down.” However, with conditioning taking a back seat, Wright said that some parts of the game needed extra attention.
“The ability to quickly adjust … from one game to the rest, it takes a great effort on the players’ part both mentally and physically,” said coach Adam Wright. “I think (Friday) was a positive step.”
But with the 17-2 win against UCSD and other landslide victories against Princeton and Loyola Marymount, UCLA can’t get too comfortable – especially since the final rounds of the earlier NorCal invite ended with close, one-point-lead victories against top-ranked teams like USC and California.
“(The SoCal Invitational is) going to be really hard,” Barabino said. “We’re all on the same level, so it’s going to be really challenging.”
Ultimately, the team practices this week with a crutch of experience that the players have realized since Friday’s UCSD game.
“We’ve grown together a little closer as a team,” Reynolds said. “We’re kind of clicking together better and we’re just more of a unit.”
With that, the Bruins will face their villains once again in a different setting, and Wright said he will spend the week making sure everyone is “ready to go” for Irvine.
“We’ll be tested just like three weeks ago up north,” Wright said. “We forget about what happened a month ago and worry about what (happens) in the present moment.”
