Women’s water polo to take on top schools at UCI Invitational

No. 2 UCLA women’s water polo will travel to the home of a familiar opponent to battle in the highly competitive UC Irvine Invitational this weekend.

In the 11-6 win over No. 9 UC Irvine (6-5) on Feb. 19, the Bruins leapt to an early 8-2 lead but lost momentum and briefly let the Anteaters back into the game.

“We obviously struggled at points in that game with making the right decision and keeping up our intensity,” said coach Brandon Brooks. “We had a little bit of a let down, intensity-wise, getting away from the things we had done well early in the game.”

This weekend, a major focus will be creating and maintaining a strong lead and high level of play throughout all four quarters. The Bruins will be hoping to bring this intensity to their first matchup of the invitational against No. 19 San Diego State (3-5).

The last time the two squads faced off in March of last season, the Bruins cruised to a 13-4 victory. Still, the team is not taking the Aztecs lightly.

“They have a lot of people that can post up that are pretty versatile,” Brooks said. “They have a lot of freedom to attack offensively, so we have to be ready to play good position defense and to move.”

Depending on the result of the game against San Diego State, UCLA will face off against either No. 7 Michigan (10-3) or No. 11 San Jose State (7-6). The Bruins downed the Michigan Wolverines 11-7 in the UCSB Winter Invitational last month, but have yet to meet the San Jose Spartans in the pool this season.

“For the past couple days, we have been preparing for the next game as well as the San Diego State game, so like watching video, going over plays and then doing them in the pool over and over again,” said freshman goalkeeper Carlee Kapana.

All 16 teams at the Invitational are currently ranked in the top 25, so the Bruins are sure to encounter high-caliber teams at every turn.

“We’re taking it day by day. We’re learning a lot of after-goal plays, a lot of 6-on-5 plays, what different teams do and what different defenses teams run,” said junior center Elissia Schilling. “We’re just incorporating all that and focusing on ourselves as well and what we do, but taking their defenses and going from there.”

Among the noteworthy opponents UCLA could face this weekend are No. 1 USC (7-0), No. 3 California (13-1) and No. 4 Stanford (9-1), its three main rivals in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Bruins previously faced off against the Trojans and fell 8-6 in the Triton Invitational Feb. 14, but this weekend will be UCLA’s first shot at playing the Bears and the Cardinal.

“This is the first really good look at everyone this year and probably the only look we’ll get before we go into our conference schedule,” Brooks said. “It is a good indicator of how we stack up right now and what we need to work on.