Men’s water polo narrowly defeats Cal to win MPSF championship

A month ago, the Bruins fought to gain a lead against the Golden Bears.

On Sunday, the UCLA men’s water polo team fought to keep a lead in the longest game it has played in two years.

As the sun set over Uytengsu Aquatics Center, UCLA defeated Cal 12-11 in a dramatic overtime finish to win the MPSF tournament. The Bruins remain undefeated – and just two NCAA Tournament wins away from back-to-back national titles.

“It was really good for us in a sense that we had to overcome a lot of things,” said coach Adam Wright. “We had to overcome foul trouble, we had to overcome making poor decisions and emotionally getting too involved in the game … but we were able to bring it back and all those situations will help us moving forward.”

The last time UCLA played Cal on Oct. 24, its undefeated record narrowly escaped without a stain. It took the Bruins over 22 minutes to make up for an early first-period deficit – the longest they had to battle for a lead this season.

The opposite happened Sunday.

Shortly after an early attack from the Bears, senior utility Danny McClintick notched his sixth goal of the weekend. Unlike the last matchup between the two schools, it took the Bruins just over a minute to tie the game.

UCLA secured its first lead off a goal from junior attacker Ryder Roberts with 4:37 remaining in the first period – a lead that wouldn’t diminish until the final seconds of regulation.

Freshman attacker Spencer Farrar capitalized off an offensive foul with his first goal of the tournament to bump the Bruins’ lead to 3-1. Cal quickly answered and seconds after the goal, a double-exclusion put the Bruins in the first of three eventual 5-on-5 situations.

McClintick’s second goal of the game came with under a minute remaining in the first, mirroring his lethal first-period performance against the Trojans on Saturday. Although the Bears were able to convert a power play with just under 20 seconds left, UCLA headed into the second period with a 5-3 lead.

The second period was a defensive battle, as junior goalie Garrett Danner’s chest took a beating. Senior defender Anthony Daboub tallied the only goal of the period with 2:48 remaining.

The Bears would score two quick goals to start the second half, narrowing the Bruins’ lead to just one – a quick comeback the Bruins said they expected from their opponents.

“I think we came out pretty strong and didn’t allow them to jump on us quick,” Danner said. “But with that team, they’re going to have some type of spurt and it’s a question of if (we’re) going to be able to stop it.”

The Bruins did.

Back on the offensive attack, sophomore attacker Max Irving notched his second goal from the outside to end a nine minute drought for the Bruins. With just over three minutes remaining in the third, sophomore attacker Jack Grover scored on a backhand – pushing the lead to three.

“We had to have a lot of different guys step up,” Wright said. “I mean we had Grover playing as a 2-meter man (because) both of our centers were out of the game. We had a lot of foul trouble so we had some guys step up in big time positions that they haven’t been in before.”

Junior center Gordon Marshall drew and converted a power play with 5:57 remaining in the fourth to put the Bruins up by three points for the third time in the game. Yet the Bears offense did what it was able to do for the past three periods, narrowing the lead with two straight goals.

Fouls and exclusions gave the Bruins trouble as they tried to fend off the Bears’ increasingly lethal attack. By the end of the game, the Bruins were excluded 18 times – surpassing a previous team high of 17 that was established against Pepperdine in early October.

After almost 30 minutes of trailing, Cal tied the game. A minute later, the teams headed into overtime.

“They’re a really good team so they’re always going to bring it back,” Irving said. “They’re not just going to roll over. … We can do a better job of getting out to their shooters and their guys who are really good passers.”

The fifth period of play was characterized by tight defense on both ends of the pool, with the Bears soaking up a majority of offensive time. Irving brought life back into a struggling Bruin offense with a last-second power play goal.

Later, junior attacker Jack Fellner converted a 6-on-4 advantage with under two minutes remaining in the second overtime period. Although the Bears were able to answer in the final 40 seconds, the Bruins’ characteristically unforgiving defense secured the MPSF tournament trophy.

Although fouls caused some grief for the coaching staff, Wright saw an improvement in the Bruins’ ability to slow Cal on the counter. Counterattacks almost cost the Bruins in the two teams’ matchup a month ago.

“That’s always going to be one of their strengths, and we just try to limit that as much as we can,” Danner said. “This time we were able to, and hopefully we can continue that going forward.”

To cap off his historic weekend, Danner tallied a new career-high 21 saves against the Bears – inflating Saturday’s record-breaking career save total to 741.

From his view in the cage, Danner saw the team’s growth since the 8-7 comeback victory over Cal in October.

“It’s night and day. We are starting to really stick to our team’s themes way more than we were able to in the past – basically living and breathing it all the time,” Danner said. “We used to have waves of it, now it’s just constant. We know if we set the tone and play our defense, we are going to put ourselves in a good position.”