Bruins bounce back at UCSB Winter Invitational, winning back-to-back matchups

This post was updated Jan. 19 at 12:11 p.m.

After suffering their first loss of the season, the Bruins won back-to-back on the second day of competition at the UCSB Winter Invitational.

No. 2 UCLA women’s water polo (3-1) outlasted No. 13 UC San Diego (1-1) 8-6, despite going down early 2-0. Later in the afternoon, UCLA defeated unranked Iona (1-2) 16-4 after leading by eight goals at halftime.

Held scoreless in the first against the Tritons, the Bruins found themselves in yet another hole early in the game after trailing No. 11 UC Santa Barbara for much of yesterday’s defeat. UCLA has failed to score in three quarters so far this season.

However, things changed quickly as UCLA tallied off five straight goals from five different Bruins. The Tritons went on a 2-0 run in the third, but they were held off by the Bruins.

Coach Adam Wright noted the teams ability to get out of droughts and said going forward they need to be more consistent from quarter to quarter.

“In a lot of those games, we put ourselves in a really tough place to get out of,” Wright said. “Like at the NCAA semifinals down 5-0, to go get ourselves to 6-5 with a 1:50 left in the game and a chance to win. We have to do a better job of being consistent from beginning to end.”

While the Bruins found scoring options from seven Bruins against the Tritons and 11 against the Gaels, freshman utility Abbi Hill led the team with four goals in the two games.

Wright praised Hill, saying her versatility lends her to being one of the best water polo players in the nation as a freshman.

“(Hill) is one of the top young players in the country,” Wright said. “She has the potential to impact this program in so many different ways. One of the exciting things for her is that we can play her at multiple positions, and she can play any position at an elite level.”

Junior goalkeeper Jahmea Bent got her second start of the season, racking up seven saves and only allowing two goals before she was replaced at halftime against UCSD. Redshirt freshman Georgia Phillips took her spot, recording three saves and giving up four goals.

Against Iona, it was freshman goalkeeper Quinn Winter who got the start, tallying five saves and allowing one goal. Bent got the nod for the second half, managing to capture five saves but allowing three goals.

Phillips praised her fellow goalkeepers for their versatility and said the team hopes to find a more set rotation in regard to the team’s goalie.

“I think we all bring something different to the team,” Phillips said. “We all work really well together. We’ll find our set rotation and see how it goes from there.”

After trading blows with the Tritons, the Bruins had eight different Bruins score in the first half against Iona, as many points as UCLA had Friday in a loss against UCSB.

Hill said that when taking big leads it’s hard to keep the energy up, but that Wright encourages them to go hard on every possession.

“It’s hard to not take your foot off the gas, just cause you’re up by so much,” Hill said. “One things (Wright) really emphasizes is just taking every counter and going hard on every possession. If we stop hitting the gas, that means we think it’s easy, and no game is ever easy.”

UCLA is set to play Ottawa (0-4) on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the UCSB Campus Pool. This is Ottawa’s first year in collegiate competition.