Bruins’ water polo redeems LBS loss with USC victory
Despite losing to Long Beach State in the MPSF conference tournament, UCLA still was named the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament after winning the third-place game against USC Sunday. (Austin Yu/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Tanner Walters
Nov. 24, 2014 10:30 a.m.
Finding itself in an unfamiliar position this weekend, the UCLA men’s water polo team put together a dominant victory over USC on Sunday.
Following a major upset loss to Long Beach State in Saturday’s semifinal, UCLA quickly bounced back with a wire-to-wire win in the third-place game of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Tournament.
From the outset of Sunday’s game, the UCLA offense was in complete control, getting the results that were nowhere to be found against Long Beach State. Four first-quarter goals gave the Bruins an early lead on their way to a 10-5 victory that never seemed very close.
At the other end of the pool, sophomore goalkeeper Garrett Danner matched his offense’s physical play with multiple aggressive saves out in front of the goal.
In the Bruins’ 5-3 loss to Long Beach, Danner was able to contain the 49ers with 11 saves, but lacked the offensive support from his attackers. On Sunday, Danner continued his strong play with 14 saves and the Bruin offense regained its scoring touch.
“It’s a great feeling to be able to bounce back from the loss that we had,” Danner said. “It was a good wakeup call.”
As the No. 1 team in the country with a 27-3 record this season, the Bruins haven’t been required to bounce back from losses very many times. However, Saturday’s loss put them in that situation for the first time since losing back-to-back games to USC and Stanford back in early October.
Danner said that while it was hard for them to turn around, the team was able to step it up and get back to their normal play.
In their first of three weekend games, No. 1 UCLA played No. 9 UCSB. After outscoring the Gauchos 6-0 in the first quarter, the Bruins easily cruised to a 14-8 win. Nine different players scored for UCLA, led by senior attacker Daniel Lenhart’s hat trick.
Although the Bruins missed their chance to automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament by failing to win the MPSF tournament, UCLA was still awarded the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament on Sunday night and can still get an at-large bid. UCLA will begin its run for a national championship on Dec. 6 against either Brown or San Diego.
Compiled by Tanner Walters, Bruin Sports contributor.
