Women’s water polo struggles against Cal, jeopardizes tournament chances
Junior attacker Lizette Rozeboom said the Bruins should have been more successful in their Sunday third-place game. UCLA lost to California to finish fourth at the MPSF Tournament. (Grant Mooney/Daily Bruin)
By Cassidy Hunt
April 30, 2018 12:11 a.m.
The Bruins dropped their second match of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation championships, this time to the Golden Bears.
“We could have been more aggressive,” said junior attacker Lizette Rozeboom. “I could have paid more attention to what was going on around me. We all could have played a lot better.”
No. 4 seed UCLA fell to No. 2 seed California by a score of 8-3 in the MPSF losers bracket in a fight for third place. The game was held in the Golden Bears’ home pool Sunday. This loss gives UCLA fourth place in the conference and may potentially jeopardize its chances at an NCAA Tournament berth.
California opened up the scoring about halfway through the first quarter and scored once more before the period ended. UCLA failed to find the back of the net for the entire first quarter.
“I’d really like us to work on some shooting,” Rozeboom said. “We just need to keep doing our own plays and attacking the goal.”
In the first minutes of the second quarter, the Golden Bears scored twice more to bring the score to 4-0. It was not until about halfway through the second period that sophomore attacker Maddie Musselman put the Bruins on the board. UCLA entered halftime trailing 4-1.
California scored first in the second half but was answered quickly by sophomore attacker Bronte Halligan. However, the Golden Bears were able to score twice more before the end of the third. California opened the scoring of the final quarter of the game, and once again Halligan responded, making the final score 8-3.
“We need to do better on our five-man and have more confidence in our shooting,” said junior goalkeeper Carlee Kapana. “We have great shooters but we need to be better approaching the goal.”
This loss follows a win against No. 5 seed Arizona State on Friday and a loss against No. 1 seed USC in the semifinals Saturday.
“As the goalkeeper, I need to work on staying positive throughout the game, even if we fall behind,” Kapana said. “That’s going to be a big thing if we get to go into the NCAA Tournament.”
UCLA failed to secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament at USC from May 11 to 13. It will find out at 5 p.m. on Monday if it has earned one of the three at-large bids. If the Bruins fail to secure an NCAA bid, it will be the first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament that UCLA has not participated.
“We always hope that we get the bid,” Rozeboom said. “That’s what we train for. All we can do now is wait. We’ll get back in the water on Tuesday, where we can work on 6-on-5 situations; that’s where I want to gain an advantage if we get to move on in two weeks.”
