Women’s water polo downs Arizona State, Indiana with dominant play
Senior defender Kelsey Blacker said UCLA women’s water polo took advantage of its opponents’ zone defenses to improve its passing and shooting. UCLA defeated Arizona State and Indiana on the road Saturday afternoon. (Emily Ng/Daily Bruin)
By Marcus Veal
March 17, 2019 3:47 p.m.
After losing two in a row, the Bruins are now winners of three straight.
No. 3 UCLA women’s water polo (19-3, 3-0 MPSF) left the desert with two more conference wins, beating No. 8 Arizona State (10-8, 1-2) and No. 22 Indiana (5-12, 0-4) by scores of 12-9 and 16-2, respectively.
“Overall, this past week has been the most consistent week we’ve had this year,” said coach Adam Wright. “It pays off when you’re putting together good weeks of practice and always being consistent in your preparation.”
In the first game of the doubleheader, neither team was able to pull ahead by more than two goals in the first half.
The Sun Devils struck first with a goal on their first possession of the game, but the Bruins responded by scoring the next three goals of the first quarter. Another goal by Arizona State started the quarter-and-a-half stretch in which either the score was tied or UCLA had the lead by one. Each team scored three more times before the Bruins carried a 6-5 lead in to the break.
Senior defender Kelsey Blacker said more confidence and smarter shot-taking led the team to pull away in the second half.
“They were dropping off of our centers that opened up our spacing and made our passing a lot better,” Blacker said. “That lead to more opportunities in the inside and a lot of ejections which helped to transition to other things.”
Junior attacker Bronte Halligan and senior defender Rachel Whitelegge scored twice, and sophomore attacker Roxy Wheaton stretched the Bruins’ lead to four – their biggest lead of the game – in the third quarter. UCLA outscored Arizona State 6-4 in the second half to secure the win.
Senior attacker Lizette Rozeboom and junior attacker Maddie Musselman each had hat tricks, leading the Bruins in scoring.
Against the Hoosiers, Rozeboom’s success of drilling the back of the net continued.
“Just looking at them, both teams were racing out without a blocker and those were the moments I took advantage of,” Rozeboom said. “When they dropped their blocker, I had an open shot and I have a lot of confidence from out there.”
She picked up three more goals on the day, totaling six, all after missing time with nagging injuries, according to Wright.
“(Rozeboom is) one of the best shooters in the country and having her back really changes the dynamic of our team and allows us to have balance on both sides of the pool,” Wright said. “She’s been out for a while but she’s been getting healthier every week. It’s nothing structural, just little lingering things and we’ll continue to keep an eye on her.”
Two of Rozeboom’s goals came in the first quarter and were part of a 5-1 run UCLA had in the first quarter. The rout continued in the second, when Rozeboom completed her hat trick in the middle of the quarter. Halligan and freshman attacker Katrina Drake helped push the Bruin lead to 8-2 at the half.
UCLA closed out the game on a 10-0 run, dropping eight goals in the second half while pitching a shutout in the second half to make it three consecutive wins to start conference play.
The Bruins were 6-of-8 on the day converting on man-up opportunities and Rozeboom said she’s proud of how confident everyone has been on this three-game win streak.
“Our team dynamic has been really strong recently,” Rozeboom said. “I think we really changed the way we all approach the goal. Because of that we’re a lot more aggressive on offense and that’s very visible in the fact that we’ve scored a lot more goals in the last couple weeks.”
