Women’s water polo looks to secure MPSF title rematch against Stanford
Junior Rachel Fattal said the Bruins were able to recover from their third-quarter slump against the USC Trojans by just playing their own game. (Aubrey Yeo/Daily Bruin)
By Nicole Becannon
April 21, 2015 12:48 a.m.
Two years ago, the UCLA women’s water polo team ended its regular season with two losses to Stanford and went on to fall to the Cardinal twice more in the postseason.
One year ago, the Bruins entered the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament with two regular-season losses to the Cardinal and were once again defeated by their rival nemesis in both the MPSF and NCAA tournament finals.
And this year, No. 2 UCLA’s only two losses of the season have come against No. 1 Stanford.
In all, the Bruins have gone 76-14 over the past three seasons. They’re 1-10 against the Cardinal.
UCLA (21-2, 5-1 MPSF) enters the 2015 postseason with a chance to reverse those trends as the No. 2 seed in the MPSF tournament; Stanford holds the No. 1 seed, just like last year.
In the past two weeks, UCLA has demonstrated a newfound rhythm. Earlier this season, the Bruins took early leads, but their scoring consistently dropped off in the second half – an issue that plagued them in the postseason last year.
However, during their game against the Trojans Saturday and during their most recent loss to the Cardinal on April 11, the Bruins showed signs of development, improving their play in the second half.
In its most recent matchup against Stanford, UCLA overcame a sluggish start throughout the game and even hammered in three goals in the fourth against the Cardinal. Likewise, the team was able to bust through a third-quarter slump to score four of its nine total goals in the fourth quarter against USC Saturday.
Junior attacker Rachel Fattal said the Bruins found their pace during their game against the Trojans.
“After we got back to playing our own game, we were able to pick it back up pretty quickly,” Fattal said.
This weekend, UCLA will likely need to maintain that level of play for the entire game in order to defeat Stanford in a potential MPSF championship rematch. Last year, the Cardinal overcame halftime deficits to beat the Bruins in both the MPSF title game and the NCAA title game.
“We’re always looking for what we can do better. Stanford is an excellent team and they play fast and aggressive and we need to think about what we can do to prepare for that,” said coach Brandon Brooks.
As a team, the Bruins have recently shown that they are committed to slowing down when they need to and playing with confidence to the very end.
Redshirt senior goalkeeper Sami Hill said the team did well to fight through the nerves of a big game against USC Saturday.
“It’s easy to get riled up in a big game, and we did a great job at just taking it piece by piece,” Hill said.
The Bruins will need to do just that to get revenge against the Cardinal this weekend. For UCLA to play Stanford in the MPSF championship game, the team will have to beat Cal State Bakersfield in the quarterfinal and then defeat either USC or San Jose State in the semifinal.
