No. 2 UCLA men’s water polo nets five wins at Princeton Invitational
Senior attacker Griffin White scored 18 of UCLA’s 99 goals this weekend. He played in his first games of the season after sitting out because of injury.
Men’s water polo
UCLA 20
Princeton 3
By Daily Bruin Staff
Sept. 10, 2012 4:05 a.m.
UCLA men’s water polo finally had the full squad together for this past weekend’s Princeton Invitational.
Though they managed to win all of their previous games without some key players, this weekend the Bruins showed just how powerful they could be when competing as a whole.
No. 2 UCLA carried on its undefeated streak, taking five wins to improve to 8-0 on the season.
While a win is recorded as a win regardless of the margin of victory, the Bruins certainly made a statement on both sides of the pool, outscoring their opponents 99-19.
The Bruins asserted their dominance over the smorgasbord of East Coast teams.
Over two days, they played Fordham, George Washington, Brown and the invitational host Princeton.
Of all the teams they played, only Princeton and Brown were ranked, at No. 13 and 18 respectively.
UCLA traveled to Princeton as the highest-ranked team present at the invitational.
While their offensive efforts would have more than clinched the wins, the Bruins also had solid defensive performances from both redshirt senior goalkeeper Matt Rapacz and redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Stephen White.
They only allowed 19 goals over the course of the invitational, including a shutout over Fordham.
Much of the team’s offense came from senior attacker Griffin White, who scored 18 goals for the blue and gold.
Rapacz and Griffin White played their first games of the season at the Princeton Invitational, as they sat out the UCLA Invitational with injuries.
Scoring came from all over the roster, but once again freshman Danny McClintick made notable contributions.
With eight more goals to add to his seven from the first weekend, he has established himself early as an important presence for UCLA.
Although the Bruins had an easy run this past weekend, they have more daunting opponents awaiting them at the NorCal Tournament in Stanford this weekend.
The annual tournament pits nine members of the Mountain Pacific Sports Conference against one another for their first regular season games of the year.
Particularly important to watch will be any matchups between UCLA, California and USC, as the trio went into last weekend ranked the top three teams in the nation.
Compiled by Emma Coghlan, Bruin Sports senior staff.
