Bruin win blasts Trojans out of pool

  CHRIS BACKLEY Sophomore attacker Matt
Flesher looks for an open teammate to pass to in a Nov. 11
game against Irvine.

By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

In a game that went right down to the wire, the UCLA men’s
water polo team defeated the crosstown rival Trojans last Saturday
in both teams’ final regular season game.

Shortly before the football game at the Rose Bowl Aquatics
Center, No. 3 UCLA edged out No. 2 USC 6-5 in a non-conference game
to improve the Bruins’ overall record to 18-3 and drop the
Trojans to 18-6.

“Anytime we play ‘SC we get fired up because we
don’t like them a lot,” Bruin goalie Brandon Brooks
said. “It’s not hard to get the emotions going for
‘SC.”

Although the game didn’t make much difference in the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings, the Bruins figure
that their win will help in the MPSF tournament that starts next
week.

“We wanted to win, no matter what,” sophomore Matt
Flesher said. “We tried to get the momentum going for the
conference tournament next weekend.”

But the team did admit that they weren’t at their best
Saturday against USC.

“I have to say that any game you win is a good
game,” Brooks said. “But as far as, did we play really
well? I don’t think we did. We played with a lot of emotion
in the first and second quarters. That wore off.”

Senior Adam Wright, returning from a three-game hiatus, led the
Bruins with three goals. He had missed the games against Stanford,
Long Beach and UC Irvine in the past two weeks because of a
redshirt infraction his freshman year. Wright had his eligibility
restored on Friday for the rest of the season’s games because
of a temporary restraining order handed down by the Los Angeles
County Superior Court.

Though players wouldn’t comment on Wright’s
situation, Brooks did remark on his intense play, “He was
Adam being Adam.”

Flesher opened the scoring with a goal in the first period, and
Wright followed suit two minutes later to put UCLA up 2-0.

In the second period USC tied the score with a pair of goals by
senior George Csaszar and junior Daniel Lontay, but again, Wright
and Flesher each scored to give the Bruins another two-goal lead.
Then, with 38 seconds left in the half, the Trojans scored once
more to narrow the gap to 4-3.

The teams traded goals in the third and then Wright scored his
last goal to give UCLA a 6-4 lead going into the fourth.

In the final period Csaszar scored again bringing his team a
goal closer. But with 43 seconds left and the Trojans in possession
of the ball with a chance to tie the game, UCLA senior Brian Brown
came up with a steal. The Bruins ran out the remaining 15 seconds
on the clock for the win.

“All of our games with USC are extremely close,”
Bruin co-head coach Guy Baker said. “It seemed like your
typical UCLA-USC, before-the-football-game water polo match. It was
a classic, close, hard-fought ball game.”

In next week’s MPSF tournament, which decides who makes it
to the Final Four, the Bruins (7-1 league) are the No. 2 seed,
while the Trojans (6-2) will be the No. 3 seed. If both teams win
their first-round games, they could meet in the second round.

“Most likely we’re gonna have to match up with
‘SC in the tournament next weekend, so we’re just
getting ready for that,” Flesher said.