Men’s water polo to enter rematch against the Cal Bears

The idea of a winning streak is nothing new for the Bruins.

They enter conference play this weekend with a 53-game winning streak, and it’s been four years since No. 1 UCLA (20-0) has lost a game against No. 2 California (14-1).

In its previous matchup in the Mountain Pacific Invitational, UCLA won 10-7 in one of its most cohesive games of the season.

[Related: UCLA men’s water polo beats Cal in Mountain Pacific Invitational final]

“Leading up to that whole tournament we prepared for all the teams, especially for Cal,” said senior center Patrick Woepse. “The way they play, we try to emulate that in practice and bring a lot of that energy into practice and I think what really helped us in that game (was) our focus throughout the weeks preparing.”

In that game, UCLA converted five of the eight 6-on-5 opportunities on the offensive end – all the while restricting Cal to convert only three of its 11 counterattack chances.

“Those are all things that we are hoping to continue to improve on,” said coach Adam Wright. “We know it’s going to be a different game. They have for sure gotten better over the last three and a half, four weeks, and so have we. It will be a different game, but we believe that if we do the things that we are supposed to do, we will have a chance.”

Since that Mountain Pacific Invite, the Bears have outscored their opponents 46-25 in three games while the Bruins have outscored their opponents 62-24 in five games.

“Now that we have played them once and have seen them play a couple of times, we know what their tendencies are, what their offense is running,” Woepse said. “Now our defense, as deep as we’ve seen them, will need to make adjustments to shut down what they are running.”

Already a high-scoring team, a missing piece to Cal’s offense during the invite was its top scorer, sophomore Johnny Hooper. A misconduct ejection within the first quarter meant Hooper was out of the pool for the rest of the game.

“He’s a good player, and he’s very fast and quick,” Woepse said. “We need to definitely watch him when we are in our attack and make sure we are doing the right things defensively to try and slow him down on offense.”

[Related: Patrick Fellner’s trend-defying journey from NorCal to UCLA water polo]

For UCLA, the answer to Cal’s offense is to counter with its own offense.

“Our attack is very important, because if we don’t attack in the right fashion, it leads to their counterattack,” Wright said. “If we are just sitting, then we are helping them prepare for their transition game. We have to be balanced and we have to be smart with the ball, but at the same time we have to attack the goal.”

Woepse echoed Wright in saying that patience will be crucial for the attack against a team like Cal.

On defense, the Bears’ ability to move and split is something that UCLA will have to make adjustments to, Woepse added.

But even if Cal does create shot opportunities, senior center Gordon Marshall can rely on senior goalkeeper Garrett Danner. Danner, last year’s Cutino Award winner, had a total of 14 saves in the last game against the Bears.

“It’s always good to have a goalkeeper like that,” Marshall said. “If something’s going to happen, he’s going to be there.”