Bruins brace for coming competition

Friday, February 26, 1999

Bruins brace for coming competition

WATERPOLO: UCLA must face tough Pac-10 teams without top three
players

By Steve Kim

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The women’s water polo team wants to get things straight.

The three-peating national champions lost to their rivals early
in the season to display a scarring 4-3 game record.

This shaky first impression left doubts of whether they’re
capable of winning the fourth national title, especially after
missing three of their top players and head coach Guy Baker to the
national team for this season.

But as senior co-captain Amanda Gall says, "The season just
began."

"The whole team is very positive about the season," Gall said.
"On paper it may look like we may not be as good this year and I’m
sure people are thinking UCLA lost it this year by losing three
players and head coach to the national team, but the games we lost
against Stanford and USC were really close games."

Their reputation is at stake.

Because the Bruins tripped at the start, they’re out to do some
serious damage control.

Interim head coach Adam Krikorian remembers when Stanford beat
UCLA at Palo Alto, they celebrated like they won the NCAA
championship.

"Everyone’s marked our game on their calendar," Krikorian said.
"Teams are coming in with extra confidence. But we’ll see in the
end.

"The biggest things with this team is comparing themselves with
the past three years," he added. "They’re facing a lot of outside
pressure and there’s a lot of players who are getting added
experience by filling in the spotlight. But we should still contend
for the title this year."

The Bruins face the same rivals at the UC Santa Barbara
tournament this weekend. Low scoring games in the past several
matches indicate good defense. In order to better their chances of
winning against the tough teams this weekend, they need to increase
their offense.

The competition, Bruins admit, is much tougher this year but
nothing to fear.

"In the past we’ve been the dominant team," Gall said. "But this
year there’s going to be a lot of competition between USC,
Stanford, Cal and us, and the teams behind aren’t that far away. So
it’ll be a little bit more exciting for everyone. I’m looking
forward to the competition."

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