No. 3 UCLA women’s water polo keeps up winning record after weekend matchups

This post was updated Feb. 6 at 11:32 p.m.

The Bruins are off to their best start since 2019.

No. 3 UCLA women’s water polo (11-0, 2-0 MPSF) completed another weekend with an unblemished record, defeating No. 11 San Jose State (6-6, 0-1) by a score of 19-6 on Friday evening before picking up a 12-8 victory over No. 8 Fresno State (4-7) on Saturday morning. The blue and gold finished its first home weekend of the season with an exhibition loss to No. 1 USC (4-0).

The 11 straight wins to start the season mark the Bruins’ best beginning to a season since they won 13 straight in 2019.

In their home opener against the Spartans, the Bruins put up two goals in the opening frame before scoring 17 the rest of the way.

After San Jose State cut the lead to 3-2 with 3:13 left in the second period, UCLA scored eight unanswered to break the game open with an 11-2 advantage midway through the third quarter.

Coach Adam Wright said his team was lacking energy at the start of the game.

“Our intensity and energy dictates how we go into defense,” Wright said. “Give San Jose credit. They were moving a lot. We got caught grabbing them.”

UCLA found the back of the net eight more times over the rest of the game to improve to a perfect 42-0 record all time against San Jose State.

Redshirt senior attacker Maddie Musselman led all scorers with a hat trick while redshirt junior goalkeeper Georgia Phillips tallied seven saves and an assist in three quarters of action.

As was the case in the Bruins’ home opener, Fresno State kept pace with UCLA early in the game, tying the contest at 5-5 in the second quarter after the blue and gold opened with a 5-2 lead.

But like the Spartans, the Bulldogs yielded to a Bruin scoring barrage between the second and third quarters, allowing seven straight goals to find the back of the net across a span of just over nine minutes.

Freshman attacker Emma Lineback said the team picked up its intensity after the halftime break against Fresno State.

“We just started talking to each other more because it was pretty quiet early on,” Lineback said. “Just communicating with each other and becoming more confident as a team.”

While the Bruins pitched a shutout in the third quarter, they also found themselves on the other end of one in the fourth, as they were outscored 3-0 in the final frame. Still, UCLA ended the game with a four-goal advantage.

“Fresno’s a good team. We know they’re moving,” Wright said. “We were slow out of the gates on defense, and they caught us off guard.”

Musselman led all scorers for the second straight day, tallying four goals and three assists. Lineback also had a hat trick of her own in the winning effort.

To cap off the weekend, UCLA played an exhibition against USC in an early rematch of last season’s NCAA championship game. While no official statistics were recorded, the Trojans took down the Bruins by an unofficial score of 13-7.

Senior defender Bella Wentzel said the team needs to work on finding ways to counter USC’s signature press defense to generate easier shots.

“We need to move more,” Wentzel said. “At the end of transition, that’s when teams are most vulnerable. We can also drive a lot more and just work more together rather than just looking at our center.”

UCLA next heads south for the Triton Invitational in San Diego on Saturday and Sunday.