Team seeks to ring another national championship win
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 30, 2000 9:00 p.m.
UCLA MEN’S WATER POLO FINISHES UNDER HEAD COACH GUY
BAKER The Bruins have won three national championships
under Baker. Year  Conference
Record  National Finish  1991
3-3 — 1992 0-6 — 1993 5-5 — 1994 2-6 — 1995 8-0 NCAA CHAMPS
1996 6-2 NCAA CHAMPS 1997 4-4 — 1998 6-2 — 1999 8-0 NCAA CHAMPS
Original graphic by VICTOR CHEN Web adaptation by MICHAEL
PARKER
By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Last year after the UCLA men’s volleyball team won the
program’s 18th national championship ““ the second such
title for the outgoing class ““ then-senior setter Brandon
Taliaferro mentioned that he had a contest going on with some of
the men’s water polo players, including Andy Bailey, who
Taliaferro had known since childhood.
“We have this contest going to see who can win the most
national championships. Now I’m up one, so he’ll have
to win next year to catch up,” Taliaferro said. At that point
it was Taliaferro 2, Bailey 1, and fellow water polo senior Adam
Wright 1.
It started their freshman year when the three, eating dinner in
the dorms, made a bet to see who could win the most national
championships.
Loser buys winner a keg.
“He assured himself at least of a tie,” Bailey said
of Taliaferro’s volleyball title last year. The fifth-year
senior added, “It’s kind of a joke, but it’s kind
of serious, too.”
Beginning with the title in 1995 and backed with the one in
1996, the Bruin men’s water polo team made a statement that
they are once again a team to reckon with; the kind of UCLA team
that ““ like the record-setting men’s volleyball team
““ is expected to win titles annually.
The Bruin water polo team won three national titles in four
years from 1969-72, but for over two decades, from 1973 to 1994,
there was a championship drought. Sure, UCLA had a handful of
runner-up finishes, but no title.
But since then, the team has returned to dominance with the
Bruins’ back-to-back titles from 1995-96.
Then came two years during which the team, going 14-12 and 17-6
overall, didn’t even finish nationally ranked.
They had their reasons. In 1997, the Bruins had just graduated
eight seniors. And in 1998, as explained by senior Blake Wellen,
the team choked and were upset in the first round of the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation tournament.
“We did really well throughout the season, but it came
down to where we needed to win the conference tournament in the
end. Everyone thought we were going to,” Wellen said.
“We played a terrible opening game and that was
it.”
Senior 2-meter man Dave Parker had another explanation.
“I suppose our coach might figure that there was too much
time spent in the bars and not enough time in the pool, or not
enough time concentrating on water polo,” he said.
Things changed quickly after those two seasons.
“Last season we didn’t party at all,” Parker
said. “We came out and did what we had to do.”
Wellen agreed.
“(Those seasons were) enough for us to get rid of the
excuse that we’re a young team and we’re still
learning,” he said. “That’s why we (won) it last
year and that’s why we’ll hopefully do it this
year.”
Last season, with a 6-5 victory over Stanford, the Bruins put
themselves on top once again.
That was the title that put Bailey at one and tied him with
Taliaferro (whose first ring came in 1997).
Recent events, however, actually have Taliaferro behind in the
standings. A few weeks ago Wright, also a fifth-year senior, was
declared ineligible for the rest of this season because it was
revealed that he played in one quarter of one game his freshman
year and never got the medical redshirt he thought he had. So if
his freshman year, 1996, counts, so does that year’s
title.
That means it’s Taliaferro 2, Wright 2, and Bailey 1.
“Technically, Adam’s even with Brandon now, and if
we win (this weekend) he could have three wins,” Bailey said.
“Yeah, I get a drink from the beer when we win our next
championship on Sunday and Brandon has to buy us a keg.”
In a few days, the UCLA men’s water polo program has a
chance to win its third back-to-back title. The Bruins just have to
do a couple things first. They have to put all the turbulence of
the season behind them. They have to put away fourth-seeded Navy of
the Eastern Conference in the semifinals. Then they have to beat
second-seeded USC, who will be gunning for their second title in
three years.
But the Bruins have all the reasons in the world to be fired up.
First, a championship might be the only way to begin to redeem a
tumultuous season. Second, UCLA would like a couple more titles
under its belt to cement its dominance in the college men’s
water polo world.
And third, Bailey and Wright want Taliaferro to owe them a
keg.
MEN’S WATERPOLO Original Graphic By CONNIE
WU/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Web Adaptation By AVISHAI SHRAGA/Daily
Bruin Senior Staff
