No. 2 UCLA women’s water polo closes out strong season

The UCLA women’s water polo team wrapped up its 2014-2015 season taking second place in the NCAA Tournament after an assessed penalty shot decided the 7-6 Stanford victory.

The Bruins ended with a 26-3 record which includes a 9-2 win over UC San Diego in the NCAA quarterfinals and a 9-5 victory over California in the semifinals. UCLA’s only three losses can be attributed to the Cardinal.

“The last three times we’ve played has been a one-goal game,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “It was the two best teams in the country playing for the national championship. As a fan, as a coach, as a player that’s all you can ask for to get there and get a shot at it.”

Throughout its season, UCLA demonstrated defensive dominance and is credited as being one of the stronger defensive teams in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference. In the NCAA Tournament weekend, that defense was not lacking as UCLA kept all opponents they faced into single-digit scoring.

“I do think that we play better team defense than (Stanford does),” Brooks said. “I think that their offensive awareness and the ability for them to put the ball in each other’s hand … and I think they do a really good job putting pressure on the officials to award advantages. Two different schools, different programs, we play different styles, and I think we both play them extremely well.”

In 2015 the Bruins produced a total of 333 goals, an average of 11.5 goals per game. Defensively, UCLA held their opponents to 140 goals, or an average of 4.8 goals per game. This feat would not have been possible without the 227 saves logged by redshirt senior goalkeeper Sami Hill.

“(Hill) is in the goal always being the voice and eyes for us,” said senior attacker Emily Donohoe. “It really helps us keep it together and really be in sync with one another.”

Much of the team’s success relied on the redshirt senior’s leadership and experience, which gave other players the confidence they needed to take risks and make offensive drives.

“I have every bit of confidence in (Hill),” said junior attacker Charlotte Pratt. “She’s an amazing goalie.”

Though Brooks led UCLA to the NCAA Tournament in all six years of his coaching experience and guided the Bruins to a MPSF conference title this year, the team will be losing their goalkeeper along with four other graduating seniors for next season. Donohoe is among those who will be leaving the Bruins. The senior attacker boasts 38 goals for the season and is tied as the second-highest scoring player on the team.

However, the team will be returning junior attacker and lead scorer Rachel Fattal who played a key role for UCLA throughout the season as well as junior defender Alys Williams who matches Donohoe in scoring.

Once the season is over, Fattal and Williams will join the USA national team alongsideHill.

Though it is unclear what the future holds, Brooks said he is proud of his players and their season despite the haunting end result.

“This team was magnificent; my team was incredible,” Brooks said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more out of them.”