Men’s polo confident about LMU, Pepperdine games

As far as weekends go, the UCLA men’s water polo team will
be hard-pressed to top its four-match NorCal tournament victory in
Berkeley that ended last Sunday.

That it culminated with a revenge win against USC in the final
only made it that much sweeter. It was the kind of
confidence-enhancing weekend a team can use to propel itself to the
next level, and the No. 7 Bruins hope to do so in this
weekend’s home games against No. 5 Pepperdine Saturday, and
No. 8 Loyola Marymount Sunday.

UCLA head coach Adam Krikorian was in high spirits after last
weekend’s tournament, but remains determined to focus on the
work ahead.

“Team morale is good,” he said. “We feel very
confident in our ability to beat anyone, thou gh we still feel we
have plenty of stuff to prove. I still don’t feel that people
believe in us, but we believe in ourselves.”

Apparently, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation believes in
senior goalkeeper Brandon Brooks, whom it named Player of the Week
after his performance in Berkeley. Sealing the award for him were a
career-high 16 saves in the championship match, holding
high-scoring USC to a paltry three goals.

“Player of the Week means I did my job,” Brooks
said, “though stuff like that doesn’t matter if we
don’t win.”

Looking ahead to this weekend, Krikorian remained cautious about
the opponents even though the Bruins have historically outstanding
records against both.

The coach called Pepperdine utilityman Jesse Smith
“possibly the best player in the country,” and, while
the Bruins are undefeated all-time (9-0) against LMU, Krikorian
claims they are “the most talented LMU team they have ever
had.”

Brooks further emphasized the importance of another good
weekend.

“Playing well last week has put us in a position to be
league leaders,” he said. “I expect this weekend to be
really physical.”