Women’s water polo thwarts Cal with strong communication, defense
No. 1 UCLA defeated No. 4 Cal 10-3 behind top scorer junior attacker Kodi Hill, who scored three goals. Hill was one of seven Bruins who scored on Sunday. (Hannah Ye/Daily Bruin)
Women's water polo
| No. 1 UCLA | 10 |
| No. 4 California | 3 |
By Nicole Becannon
March 9, 2015 3:16 a.m.
At the tail end of the first quarter, UCLA women’s water polo junior attacker Rachel Fattal made a pass to sophomore utility Mackenzie Barr who drove in a goal, capitalizing on a six-on-five power play.
In this moment, the Bruins broke away from back-and-forth exchanges with the Golden Bears to dominate the remainder of the game.
No. 1 UCLA (16-1, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) kept its winning streak alive with a 10-3 conquest of No. 4 California (14-4, 0-1) on Sunday at the Spieker Aquatics Center.
Both teams came out fighting, each scoring once within the first three minutes. A pendulum effect occurred throughout the first quarter, as the ball rarely stayed on one side of the pool. The pendulum wouldn’t swing for too long, however. The second period ended with a 7-2 Bruin lead after Barr hammered in her second goal of the game.
“I think we played really great team defense and communicated really well today,” said Barr.
The Bruin defense did in fact prove to be iron-clad against the Bears, as Cal failed to score at all in the second and third quarters, and only managed to get one past UCLA in the fourth. Even during six-on-five advantages when there had been an exclusion call against the Bruins, the Bears repeatedly failed to get the job done.
“Six-on-fives are very important against these really good teams like Cal,” Barr said. “It comes down to six-on-five or five-on-six most of the time.”
Coach Brandon Brooks said UCLA executed early on, but more importantly, the team kept their pace throughout the entire game.
“Sometimes we can get in a rush and try and win the game in the first quarter and obviously you can’t, so we’ve been stressing that. It’s part of having maturity in a sport,” Brooks said. “We didn’t give up too much defensively. (The players) prepared well and their minds were in the right place.”
The top scorer, of the seven Bruins who scored on Sunday, was junior attacker Kodi Hill with three goals. Like Brooks, Hill said the team was well prepared for this matchup.
“I think we were successful because we just came out ready to play. … We were excited to play at home.” Hill said. “We’re just focusing on getting better each game and we’re excited to see how the rest of the season goes.”
