Bruins end dry spell, deliver defeat on Trojan turf

  EDWARD LIN Senior defender Andrew Bailey
looks to pass against Pepperdine last weekend. This past Saturday
the Bruins defeated USC 7-5. UCLA 7 USC 5

By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor

Before a taunting, full-house crowd at USC’s McDonald Swim
Stadium, the top-ranked UCLA men’s water polo team beat No. 3
USC Saturday morning by a score of 7-5, ending a six-year drought
in which the Bruins failed to win at the Trojans’ house.

“We were really fired up and really pushing it for this
game,” Sydney Olympian and senior Sean Kern said.

His coach agreed.

“We showed a lot of heart, this is always a hard game to
play,” Adam Krikorian said.

The last time the Bruins beat the Trojans at USC’s
McDonald Swim Stadium ““ which Krikorian said was one of the
hardest places to play in ““ was 1994.

But things were different this time around for the Bruins, who
held a safe lead throughout the game.

UCLA came out strong, leading 2-1 after the first quarter.

“We executed our game plan very well,” Krikorian
said.

A major scare for the Bruins came from Trojan junior Ivan Babic,
who scored two goals for the Trojans, the second of which came with
just two minutes left in the game to close the gap to 7-5. Babic is
one of five starting European players who came from either
Yugoslavia or Hungry to play at USC.

Early in the game, both teams got in foul trouble. As a result
of the increased fouls, many players who usually don’t play
were put in the game.

This win was a total team effort for us,” Krikorian
said.

After the third quarter, the Bruins led 7-4. They just used the
fourth quarter to finish off the Trojans.

“We came in here with something to do and we did
it,” sophomore attacker Matt Flesher said.

Kern returned for UCLA and played as a Bruin for the first time
after competing on the U.S. water polo team in the Sydney
Games.

“I was looking forward to coming back. I was actually a
little bit nervous for it. I haven’t been on campus since
winter quarter, and I felt like a freshman,” Kern said.

But he scored four goals to lead the team physically, and
demonstrated a presence that led them emotionally.

“It was a good lift for the team,” Krikorian said.
“He has practiced with us for two days and gave us a big
boost. Imagine not practicing with the team for eight months, and
coming back to win.”

Although Kern has been back for only two days, Krikorian said
the team feels more together and whole.

“The team does feel more whole, but we definitely have
more to work on,” the coach said. “We are not done
yet.”

This was obvious in the Trojan game, as UCLA’s defense was
found to be a little faulty.

“Our defense could have been better all around,”
Kern said. “We were letting them get possession of the ball
too much. Once we overcame our defensive flaws, we pushed it on the
counter attack and took over.”

But the Bruins explain their defensive failings to the high
emotions of playing such a game.

“We had our mental lapses in our defense, but it happens
sometimes when you have a game like this,” Flesher added.

Next weekend, UCLA faces Cal on Saturday and Stanford on Sunday,
when they travel up to the Bay Area.

“This is one of the hardest weekends that you can have,
facing these teams. They are two of the top teams in the
country,” Krikorian said.

But the Bruins will head into the next weekend riding high on
the momentum from this one.