UCLA women’s water polo to be home for conference play
Sophomore center Alexa Tielmann said the team is excited to finally play at home for its first conference game after a string of away games. (Austin Yu/Daily Bruin)
By Erik Rehnberg
March 7, 2014 1:26 a.m.
The UCLA women’s water polo team has won five of its last six games, and has not fallen to an opponent ranked lower than No. 2 this season. With a 16-2 record, the Bruins sit at No. 2 in the national rankings.
But national rankings aren’t important at this stage of the season: The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rankings are what determine the team’s seeding for postseason play.
After more than five weeks and 14 games on the road, UCLA returns to Spieker Aquatics Center on Sunday afternoon for a game against Arizona State to open its conference season.
“It’s really exciting to play at home,” said sophomore center Alexa Tielmann. “We haven’t played at home in a long time, so I’m excited.”
No. 1 USC and No. 3 Stanford currently sit on top of the MPSF standings after winning their first conference games against ASU and San Jose State, respectively.
The game comes just over a week after No. 2 UCLA (16-2) beat Loyola Marymount 14-6 in what coach Brandon Brooks called a “very solid” performance.
“I would have given us a solid B+ all the way around,” Brooks said. “We had 31 shots on 37 possessions. We had an opportunity (to score) almost every time.”
Against ASU, UCLA may need a better than B+ performance. ASU moved up to the fifth slot after defeating Hawai’i several weeks ago at the UC Irvine Invitational.
The Sun Devils play very differently than most of the teams UCLA has faced so far this season, according to Brooks.
“They’re not a counterattack team,” Brooks said. “They don’t press super hard, they don’t move a lot on their offense.”
The Bruins have spent the week figuring out how to handle a team that plays a slower, more powerful kind of game than UCLA’s fast, counterattack-focused offense.
“(We’ve) kind of been focusing on clips of how they play and how we can defend it as a team,” said junior attacker Emily Donohoe.
According to Tielmann, the main challenge of ASU will be keeping its top offensive players from making big plays, especially when UCLA is down a player due to an exclusion.
“They look for opportunity and try to get exclusions,” Brooks said. “They’ve got good shooters. They’re definitely a challenge.”
Despite the challenges, the whole team seems ready to return home for the start of conference play.
“(I’m) definitely excited to be back here playing at Spieker,” Brooks said. It’s been a long time. It’s a TV game. We hope to get a good crowd.”
