Women’s water polo prepares for back-to-back doubleheaders against ASU, Indiana

The Bruins are set to amass more than 4,000 miles in travel for their next four games.

No. 2 UCLA women’s water polo (7-1, 5-1 MPSF) will enjoy a slight return to normalcy with back-to-back doubleheaders against No. 5 Arizona State (11-6, 5-3) and No. 15 Indiana (8-10, 0-6) in Tempe and Bloomington, respectively. In an ordinary season, a majority of the team’s schedule would be made up of tournaments in which four games in four days is standard practice.

This season, however, playing four games in four days will be a novel experience for the Bruins, who opened the season with eight games in six weeks. After the conclusion of the doubleheader against ASU, UCLA will immediately be tasked with making the cross-country trip to Indiana to start the first of another two-game series the next day.

Beyond the physical challenge of ramping up competition, senior attacker Roxy Wheaton said the trip will also be a mental test for the team.

“Four games in four days – flying, driving, we’re using every form of transportation – is definitely a little bit of a mental test for us,” Wheaton said. “But something that our program really hones in on is being prepared for anything and being flexible. And the fact that we even get to travel and play is such a blessing.”

The Bruins will begin the weekend taking on the Sun Devils, who opened conference play with a 10-9 upset over No. 2 Stanford on March 6. ASU is coming off a winless weekend after posting just 10 goals in two games against No. 4 California.

Nonetheless, Wheaton said the team is not underestimating the Sun Devils, who entered last weekend averaging 11.5 goals per game.

“ASU has always been a good program since I’ve been in school here,” Wheaton said. “They’re always a team that will capitalize on situations where people sleep on them. So we are not taking them lightly in the slightest.”

Coach Adam Wright added his team will have to be aggressive on the offensive end to avoid the same fate as Stanford earlier in the season.

“They have a lot of good shooters (and) they have a good center,” Wright said. “We’re going to have to be willing to be aggressive all the time in our attack. For the most part, they’re playing a pretty big zone – they’ve got a pretty good goalie. So it’s not going to be easy.”

If the Bruins are to return to Westwood with a four-game sweep, they will also have to dispatch the Hoosiers on Monday and Tuesday. Despite ranking outside of the top 10, Indiana took No. 1 USC to the wire last weekend in a 10-8 defeat.

In a shortened regular season, Wheaton said the players need to use each game as an opportunity to continue to showcase their abilities.

“I think everybody on our team wants to go out and prove to ourselves, prove to (Wright) and prove to the program as UCLA that we are a top team in the sport, and we need to show that every game that we get,” Wheaton said.

UCLA has given up an average of 8.9 goals per game in eight games this season after allowing just 5.9 goals per contest in 21 games a season ago. After the slow start defensively, junior utility Katrina Drake said the team has shifted its focus to countering movement in the frontcourt by its opposition.

While the Bruins play a more traditional style of offense with a true center, Drake said more opponents are running a wheel offense that emphasizes movement on the perimeter because of an uptick in exclusions this season.

Wheaton added that although the team has shown flashes of potential on defense, it has also had spurts where it is scattered.

After giving up 11 goals in a win Sunday versus No. 16 San Jose State, Wright emphasized his team has been allowing too many goals and putting its goalkeepers in bad situations.

“We want to try to hold teams to six goals, eight goals max,” Wright said. “If we want to have a chance to be the best, defense has got to be a staple. We haven’t done that consistently. That’s going to be an important piece for the end of the year.”

The four-game slate against ASU and Indiana will represent the final tune-up for UCLA before a doubleheader against USC to close out the regular season. Drake noted this weekend will potentially aid the team further down the road.

“I think it’s important for us to push ourselves when we’re tired because there will be games in the future where maybe we won’t be feeling our best,” Drake said. “But if this is a situation that can put us in that headspace and we can still play our best and play the UCLA pace and the UCLA way, I think that’ll set us up for future games too.”