Women’s water polo prevails over persistent Anteaters in overtime
Junior attacker Bronte Halligan logged one goal and two assists in UCLA women’s water polo’s overtime victory over UC Irvine. The Bruins will compete at UC Irvine’s Barbara Kalbus Invitational next weekend. (Elise Tsai/Daily Bruin)
Women’s water polo
| No. 7 UC Irvine | 10 |
| No. 3 UCLA | 13 |
By Jack Perez
Feb. 17, 2019 12:42 p.m.
Following their first loss of the season, the Bruins were tested at home by a familiar foe.
No. 3 UCLA women’s water polo (14-1) beat No. 7 UC Irvine (5-4) 13-10 in overtime Saturday for its third win over the Anteaters this year.
The Bruins blew a three-goal lead in the second half. With both teams failing to score in the last minute of regulation, the game went to overtime. UCLA outscored UCI 3-0 in its first overtime game of the year to pull off the win.
Freshman center Ava Johnson said the Bruins might have been overlooking the Anteaters after their earlier victories this year.
“I think (we underestimated them),” Johnson said. “We played them at the Triton Invitational and beat them 11-6 and we came out super strong and did what we needed to do. Today we didn’t follow through on what our plan was and we had to battle until the end.”
The Bruins started out with a 4-1 lead in the first quarter, but the lead started to disappear when the Anteaters defended with a full press to cash in with goals after forcing two quick turnovers before the half.
“We can’t think that because we go up 4-1 that it’s done or when we’re tired, we don’t have to do the little things right,” said coach Adam Wright. “Because right here shows that if you don’t do the little things right, it’s always going to be tough.”
The two teams went back and forth in the second half, but UCLA took a 10-9 lead after junior attacker Maddie Musselman stole the ball and scored a counterattack goal. However, the Anteaters scored 28 seconds later to send the game into overtime.
Junior attacker Bronte Halligan said Wright told the team to put it on themselves to take back the game and secure the home victory.
“It’s all about us,” Halligan said. “It’s not on him, it’s not on anyone else to do anything for us right now. It’s not on him to call plays. We can’t rely on anyone but us. It’s on us to dig deep and just show some competitiveness.”
After the loss to rival No. 1 USC (13-0) and the close game against UCI, Wright said the team’s inconsistency is holding it back from being at its peak.
“We can start the game well, and in a couple of minutes, we’re very inconsistent,” Wright said. “You can’t do that against good teams. We’re trying to build depth, but at the same time, it takes a different mindset and mentality than we have right now. Until we learn those things, we can’t arrive to be the team we want to be.”
