UCLA women’s water polo looks to build on first win over Stanford since 2017
Sophomore attacker Hannah Palmer netted two goals and added an assist to pair with three steals for UCLA women’s water polo in the second game of the doubleheader against Stanford to snap a seven game losing streak. (Christine Kao/Daily Bruin staff)
By Sam Settleman
March 31, 2021 2:25 p.m.
On the heels of a win over the defending NCAA champions, the Bruins are trying to play together and with confidence, according to Hannah Palmer.
No. 3 UCLA women’s water polo (5-1, 3-1 MPSF) split a pair of games against No. 2 Stanford (6-2, 4-2) last weekend at Avery Aquatic Center, with the Bruins improving to 36-52 all-time against the Cardinal. UCLA never led in Saturday’s game but never trailed in the encore matchup.
The sophomore attacker said the Bruins played with more energy in Sunday’s rematch.
“When our energy is up, we are playing our style of water polo,” Palmer said. “We’re not letting another team deter us from what we want to do. We need to keep attacking the right way and just be confident in everything that we do and not second guess ourselves.”
In the weekend series, 13 players scored a point for UCLA, with the Bruins putting up 11 goals in each of the contests against a Cardinal defense that allowed just over seven goals per game heading into the series and had not allowed more than 10 goals in any game this season.
Palmer – who had a team-high-tying five points in the doubleheader – said none of the players on the team take on a specific role.
“I think everyone has the same roles,” Palmer said. “Everyone can do everything.”
Playing in the sixth game of her collegiate career, freshman attacker Malia Allen – the freshly crowned MPSF/KAP7 Newcomer of the Week – scored three goals, registered a steal and drew an exclusion in Sunday’s win, all while being one of four players to not commit an exclusion the entire weekend.
Allen downplayed her career-best scoring output, instead crediting her teammates for her first-half hat trick.
“None of my successes would have happened if it wasn’t for my team and them doing their jobs, which helps me do mine,” Allen said.
The Irvine native added that her quick adjustment to the college game can be attributed to the opportunities in the pool afforded to her by coach Adam Wright, in addition to the support of her teammates.
“Being surrounded by these girls and these players, they’re always behind my back 100%,” Allen said. “If I make a mistake, they don’t hold on to it. They tell me to flush it. And I think if we move on as a team, it just helps us grow.”
Despite snapping a seven-game losing streak to Stanford on Sunday, UCLA committed a season-high 13 exclusions in Saturday’s loss.
The Bruins also shot 11-of-32 from the pool in both games, good for their joint second-worst performances of the season.
Palmer said the Bruins have more work to do.
“It was a really good win, but obviously we’re not going to be completely satisfied with the win,” Palmer said. “We still have a lot of season left, so we’re not just going to focus on this win because there were a lot of things that we could do a lot better on.”
One area where the Bruins would like to see an improvement is on the defensive end, according to Wright.
“We’re giving up too many goals, to be honest, and that’s an area that we’ve got to shore up,” Wright said.
In a shortened 21-game 2020 campaign, UCLA gave up just 5.9 goals per game, a far cry from the nine goals allowed per game through six games this season.
Wright said one of the reasons for the slow start on the defensive end has been adjusting to new players in the rotation. The Bruins have had four different goalies in the cage, with senior Jahmea Bent and redshirt sophomore Georgia Phillips splitting most of the action. Moreover, four freshmen have seen playing time thus far, including Allen, who said she’s striving to improve on that end.
“I want to be able to take pride in my defense, and love being on the defensive end,” Allen said. “Obviously, with time and practice, that’ll come. And I am a freshman, so just the pace of the game is quicker. But, if I was going to point something out that I want to improve on, it’d be just defense in general, just awareness of what’s going on.”
But with an unorthodox schedule and eight freshmen on the roster, Wright took pride in his team’s response to a loss in the first game of the doubleheader.
“There’s a lot of things that are out of our control, and how we choose to let them affect us is really up to us,” Wright said. “From that standpoint, we did a really good job and they responded (Sunday), so that was a big positive.”
