Successful weekend reveals strengths, weaknesses of women’s water polo
Junior attacker Lizette Rozeboom led UCLA with four goals in its win over Fresno Pacific. She also added two against UC Santa Barbara, two against UC San Diego and one against Michigan. (Keila Maybery/Daily Bruin staff)
By Kelsey Angus
Jan. 21, 2018 8:27 p.m.
The Bruins remain undefeated after their second weekend of play.
No. 2 UCLA women’s water polo (5-0) took down No. 7 Michigan (3-2), Fresno Pacific (0-3), No. 21 UC Santa Barbara (1-1) and No. 17 UC San Diego (1-3) in the UCSB Invitational.
“I think something we did really well this weekend was focusing on those fundamentals,” said sophomore attacker Maddie Musselman. “At the same time I think we really need to work on those and being able to perform in pressure situations and go back to the little details when we are in those situations.”
The Bruins opened up the weekend with the Wolverines, their highest-ranked opponent of the season thus far. UCLA took down Michigan 5-4 with two goals from Musselman and one goal each from junior defender Kelsey Blacker, freshman attacker Lexi Liebowitz and junior attacker Lizette Rozeboom.
“It just comes down to our training and making our training harder than the game,” said senior attacker Nicole Reynolds. “I think that Michigan was a good test to that and I think that it’s really making us refocus on ourselves and our training and making every day harder than any day could be.”
The Bruins finished off Saturday’s competition with a 21-4 win over the Sunbirds.
Twelve UCLA athletes scored in the victory, including Rozeboom who scored four and sophomore attacker Bronte Halligan and junior center Sarah Sheldon who each added three.
The Bruins opened Sunday with another win, this time a 10-6 victory over the Gauchos behind two goals apiece from Rozeboom and Musselman.
UCLA closed out the weekend with a 9-3 win over UC San Diego. The Bruins again showed their depth – eight athletes scored.
Although UCLA was able to come away from the weekend with four wins, coach Adam Wright said the team can still improve, especially on its consistency.
“What I’m learning is our level of experience is pretty low. We have a few players that have played last year, but a great majority of our players have never really played a lot of minutes or really traveled,” Wright said. “This weekend was important for us to recognize when we decided to play how we’re supposed to play versus when we’re kind of reacting.”
