Men’s water polo defeats Long Beach State with strong front court attack
Redshirt senior goalkeeper Alex Wolf recorded 12 saves in No. 2 UCLA men’s water polo’s winning effort against No. 8 Long Beach State. Wolf has started four straight games for the Bruins after starting only two of the first six. (Joy Hong/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Men's Water Polo
| No. 8 Long Beach State | 7 |
| No. 2 UCLA | 11 |
By Will Foote
Oct. 6, 2019 8:00 p.m.
This post was updated Oct. 7 at 12:49 a.m.
The Bruins returned to the win column.
No. 2 UCLA men’s water polo (10-1) defeated No. 8 Long Beach State (10-7) on Oct. 4, rebounding from its only loss of the season against then-No. 3 Stanford with an 11-7 victory Friday at Spieker Aquatics Center.
“It hurt a bit losing at our home pool (to Stanford),” said freshman attacker Tommy Gruwell. “But we wanted to focus on getting to our front court attack, and I think we did that pretty well today. I think our front court attack really helped us set up our counter, our defense for the whole game.”
Despite taking nine fewer shots than Long Beach State, UCLA was more efficient with their opportunities. The Bruins finished with a .407 shooting percentage, more than double the Waves’ .194. UCLA also scored 11 goals against Long Beach State, reversing course after being held to single-digit scores in its past two matches.
But the Bruins’ offense wasn’t always scoring so efficiently. Coach Adam Wright said UCLA’s lack of energy at the beginning of the game resulted in errors like an own goal in the first quarter which knotted the score at 1-1.
“The energy, you could even see within our swimming, wasn’t where it needed to be,” Wright said. “When we don’t have good energy, things like that happen, where we give up an own goal. And … when we gave up that own goal we had six to their five players.”
UCLA outscored Long Beach State 5-2 in the second quarter, converting on three penalty shots – its only three of the match. Gruwell also scored all three of his goals off of UCLA’s nine drawn exclusions, including a penalty shot in the second quarter.
Entering the match, sophomore attacker Ashworth Molthen led the Bruins in scoring with 22 goals on the season. However, Molthen scored one goal in Friday’s contest – which came in the fourth quarter – but led the team in assists and steals with three and two, respectively.
“I think all season (Molthen) has been performing excellent,” said redshirt senior goalkeeper Alex Wolf. “I’ve talked to him about it, he’s not looking to score. He’s just looking to help the team find the best solution on offense and defense, and he continued to do that today.”
UCLA faced off against former Bruin center Quinten Osborne for the first time since Osborne transferred to Long Beach State in the offseason.
Osborne scored 49 goals in his freshman and sophomore seasons at UCLA, but shot 0-3 to go along with four drawn exclusions against the Bruins on Friday.
“For me, I’ve known (Osborne) since I was 14. He actually lives a few blocks away from me back in Huntington Beach,” Wolf said. “But, I’ve played against him, with him at practice all my life, and it was weird to see him in a different cap. But (Osborne) is a great player, fun to play against.”
The Bruins saw more firsts in their match Friday, with redshirt freshman attacker Brock Petersen scoring his first collegiate goal in the fourth quarter.
Wright said that the debut by Petersen – whose freshman season was impacted by injuries – was a part of the team’s ongoing season-long journey from September to December.
“We’ve had to make so many changes to the roster with people out,” Wright said. “Tonight we had (Petersen) playing for his first time. A lot of these guys are put into roles that maybe they didn’t envision at the beginning of the year, and what an opportunity for them.”
The Bruins will take on No. 4 UC Santa Barbara next Friday at home.
