Women’s water polo enters new season aiming for eighth NCAA title

Stanford women’s water polo is the dark cloud that looms over UCLA.

The past two consecutive NCAA finals have had an all-too-familiar ending for the Bruins – a loss at the hands of the Cardinal.

“I think that the feeling that we have when we play Stanford should fuel our fire for every single game that we go against,” said junior attacker Ashley Zwirner. “It’s going to be exciting to play them to see where they’re at and see where we are.”

Throughout the entire 2015 campaign, the only three losses that the Bruins suffered were against the Cardinal – two during the regular season and one in the NCAA final. Each of the games mirrored each other as they came down to a single goal.

“Every week we are preparing for a new team, and I don’t think we can get ahead of ourselves trying to focus on Stanford when we really haven’t played them yet or really aren’t going to this week,” said sophomore attacker Devin Grab. “So when we’re going to play Stanford, I think we’ll be ready to play Stanford.”

With the clouds from last season now behind them, the No. 2 Bruins will attempt to carry over the momentum that they established last year. The water polo team finished the year with a 26-3 record and will set its sights on an eighth NCAA title this season.

Like any new season however, the 2016 roster has changed quite dramatically for the Bruins. Among the key losses is goalkeeper Sami Hill – the team’s four-year starter, along with four other graduating seniors.

READ MORE: The legacy of the 2015 senior class and the foundation it laid.

“It is a new team. I think we are all ready to play some games against new opponents because we all have been just going at it against each other in practice,” Zwirner said. “We’re ready to see how we stand up to all these other teams.”

On the offensive end, the Bruins lost attacker Emily Donohoe who had 38 goals at the end of the season and was the second-highest scoring player on the team behind junior attacker Rachel Fattal.

The Bruins will take an offensive toll as both junior attackers Fattal and Kodi Hill, as well as junior defender Alys Williams take an Olympic redshirt year to train with the U.S. National Team for the 2016 Olympics.

“It’s a great opportunity for other players to step up and really get the opportunity to show what they’ve been working on for the last few years,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “We have had good depth and talent in the last few years and it’s just that those players are now in a position to be playing more significant minutes.”

Looking to fill those offensive gaps is the new recruiting class. With the addition of seven new freshmen to the team, the youthful depth added to the roster serves as the critical offensive spark.

“I think that generally our team has a lot of depth so I think it’s really nice to have people who are willing to work for it and step into those big roles,” Grab said. “And when they come back, we are only going to be stronger.”

Despite the losses, UCLA will hold onto senior attacker Charlotte Pratt. Additionally, strong offensive dominance from junior utility Mackenzie Barr, junior attackers Aubrie Monahan and Zwirner, as well as Grab look to fill the void of losing the leading scorers for the Bruins.

“I don’t think we are necessarily trying to replace them, but just to make sure everyone is playing to the standard we expect,” Brooks said.

The Bruins will get back redshirt junior center Alexa Tielmann, who took last season off in order to train with the Canadian Senior National Team, giving her a year of experience and training in an Olympic setting.

Throughout last year, UCLA demonstrated defensive dominance and was credited as one of the strongest defensive teams in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference.

Engineered on their defense, the Bruins allowed a total of 140 goals, an average of about four goals per game.

“Our standards don’t change. We are going to focus on being a … strong defense team and getting out on the counter attack,” Brooks said. “That will be our backbone. I still think that we have pieces to be very good on defense and offense.”

While senior Alex Musselman and freshman Carlee Kapana are battling it out for the starting position in the goal, the two goalkeepers must fill the position that Hill so crucially played for the Bruins.

READ MORE: Sami Hill – a leader, Olympian and Bruin.

“Our willingness to be physical as well is something in practice that we’ve been getting after,” Grab said. “I think that if people are willing to go at it with each other and really prepare each other for these games, (it) is a good sign.”

Although the women’s water polo team was unable to capture last year’s NCAA title, the final game did not serve as the defining moment for their team, but rather serves as another stepping-stone into achieving their goal set this season: winning an NCAA championship.

Brooks led UCLA to the NCAA Tournament in all six years of his coaching experience and guided the Bruins to an MPSF conference title in last year’s season. This year, Brooks aims to make it seven with an ending that is not all too familiar.

“I think that we’ve got a lot of work to do to be as good as we want to be, but they’re working hard and we’re going to coach them up,” Brooks said.