Women’s water polo beats USC in final regular season game

With final seeding in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation on the line, the UCLA women’s water polo team took on USC across town in the final regular season game on Wednesday night.

The Bruins handed the Trojans their second defeat of the season – and their first loss at the newly redone Uytengsu Aquatic Center.

“Being at their home, that was a little special,” said sophomore attacker Rachel Fattal. “It’s kind of a good start to the pool, we’ve never played in this pool since it’s brand new.”

From the start of the match, it was clear that the first half was going to be a defensive battle. USC (22-2, 5-2 MPSF) won the opening sprint, but was barely able to advance into the exclusion zone before turning it over due to an offensive foul. Senior utility Becca Dorst drew an exclusion early in the first, setting up a 6-on-5 opportunity that junior attacker Emily Donohoe capitalized on for a goal.

The UCLA (23-3, 5-1 MPSF) lead did not last long, however, when USC’s Eike Daube scored within a couple minutes. A goal from each team in the second period left the game tied at 2-2 going into halftime.

The pace of the game changed dramatically almost immediately after play resumed in the second half. An early goal by USC Kelly Mendoza put the Trojans up for the only time in the game, while three straight scores by the Bruins gave them a two point lead going into the last eight minutes of play.

“I think we started to shoot a little bit better,” UCLA coach Brandon Brooks said of his team’s second half performance. “I think the difference there was (that) offensively we hit some nice shots, as opposed to the first half. Defensively I thought we were pretty consistent.”

The pace remained high going into the fourth period, with Donohoe scoring 25 seconds after USC’s Monica Vavic got a shot past UCLA redshirt junior goalkeeper Sami Hill. Both defenses began to slow the game down, keeping it scoreless for the last five and half minutes as UCLA wrapped up its first win against USC since 2012.

However, Brooks was more focused on the present.

“You can look at years past and stuff like that, and I mean, it doesn’t matter if we hadn’t beaten them since 1957,” Brooks said. “This season is this season and now we beat ’em. That’s what’s important.”

Hill was key to UCLA’s success, as her 13 saves – several of which were made by the tips of her fingers – helped keep her team ahead of USC. In spite of the pressure of the final regular season game, she remained focused on her job.

“I was actually pretty calm because we played really good team defense this game,” Hill said. “I feel like we were communicating more (than in other games) even though it was so loud in this arena.”

The Bruins now have just over a week off before returning to the Uytengsu Aquatic Center to play Cal State Bakersfield in the first game of the MPSF tournament on April 25. A victory in that game could put UCLA against USC again, if the Trojans beat Arizona State in their first game.

“By no means is this (game) the end all, be all,” Hill said. “We can enjoy this for 5 minutes, then focus on the next game.”