Men’s water polo survives offensive struggles to defeat Stanford 7-6

There were 12-and-a-half minutes of scoreless water polo.

The ensemble of blue that was filtered throughout the stands clamored in the bleachers, anxiously waiting for a team to score. The crowd erupted in Spieker Aquatics Center as the drought was finally ended by a goal from senior defender Chancellor Ramirez.

“Chancellor’s goal was tremendous for us,” said senior attacker Patrick Fellner. “To get us out that scoreless period, Chancellor stepped up and made a huge goal. It was probably one of the biggest goals because if we didn’t get that, we wouldn’t have been able to sub people in, we would have to have gone back and forth, and they might have scored again. Chancellor’s goal was one of the biggest goals of the game for sure.”

A retaliation goal from No. 6 Stanford (12-4, 0-2 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) 19 seconds later tied the game back up at 6 apiece, but it was ultimately senior attacker Patrick Fellner who scored within the remaining two minutes of the game that secured the 7-6 win for No. 1 UCLA (22-0, 2-0 MPSF).

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“Every goal counts,” Ramirez said. “We definitely could have done a better job to minimize some of their goals, we kind of played out of our system, but it’s good that we came together and found a way to get it done.”

The offensive drought proved to be an Achilles’ heel for both teams on Saturday. A scoreless third period marked the first scoreless third quarter for the Bruins this season.

“It comes down to the execution of our details. We didn’t do a good job,” said coach Adam Wright. “Our centers did a fantastic job today, and we didn’t get them the ball. When we got them the ball, something good was always happening. And we got away from that. We got stagnant and it’s hard to shoot through a bunch of hands. It resulted in no goals.”

The struggling front court offense for the Bruins has been imminent the past couple of weeks as the margin of goals scored has slowly been decreasing. However, the goal by Ramirez proved to be a sign of consistency for the Bruins on the counterattack.

“That goal was big,” Wright said. “We talked about having consistency with our counterattack, that was a 6-on-5 counterattack goal, and in the end that’s getting better as a group. Obviously we were struggling in our front court so it becomes a huge deal.”

Before Ramirez’s goal in the fourth quarter, the offense for the Bruins was stagnant.

[Related: Men’s water polo’s offense lagging despite continued success]

“We were sitting. Our movement is the key to our offense – we need to move,” Fellner said. “We didn’t move at all and didn’t attack the goal the proper way, so as a result we struggled.”

Unlike the desolate third quarter with no goals scored, the Bruins seemed to show an offensive spark in the first quarter of the game.

Fellner, who ended the game with a hat trick, sent a shot flying halfway across the pool with only a second left in the first quarter. The shot snuck its way past the Stanford goalkeeper, and the Bruins ended the period with their largest lead of the game at 4-2.

“I didn’t look,” Fellner said. “We sprint over after quarters, so we can meet and take 10 seconds to breathe. I shot the ball and the buzzer rang, so I started swimming to the corner and didn’t really see it.”

In hindsight, the half-court shot that Fellner took was crucial in the win over Stanford.

“Every goal is important,” Wright said. “For us I think the big key here is learning from this – in our approach and how we are going to approach every team. You have to give credit to Stanford, but of course that goal in the end is significant because it was a one goal game. But you know, it’s not any more important than the other ones.”

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A slower offensive game for UCLA has forced the undefeated team to re-evaluate as it continues to move closer to both the MSPF tournament and NCAAs.

“After today, it’s a total reset. We have to look at everything. We got away from playing our game and we talked about it – if we don’t play our game then things become really difficult and you have to give credit to Stanford for doing a great job,” Fellner said.