After defeating No. 4 Hawai’i on Sunday, UCLA didn’t wrap up its match day as it normally would.

Instead, it celebrated the program’s 29-year legacy, community and history, which coach Adam Wright feels are important to emphasize to his players.

“UCLA women’s water polo is truly a special program, and our past is what has made it so special,” Wright said.

Joined by coaches and upperclassmen, Bruin alumni returned to Spieker Aquatics Center on April 2 to face off against the underclassmen in a shortened game. The night before, the Bruins held a fundraiser event with alumni and alumni parents where current members of the team got a chance to gain wisdom from past student-athletes.

“We can learn a lot from them,” said freshman utility Anna Pearson. “They’ve been in our shoes. They were freshmen. So just learning how they handled everything was really cool.”

Wright, who played for UCLA from 1997-2000, said it was very important to him that the current players understand just how special this program is, emphasizing the need to connect with it.

During Wright’s time on the men’s team, NCAA hadn’t held a women’s water polo championship yet, so the squad played in the National Collegiate Championship, where it won four national championships in five years from 1996 to 2000.

Freshman center/defender Lily Gess said getting to meet with and play against alumni was a privilege.

“The legacy itself of the women’s team and how many Olympians and just all the different success stories that have come out of UCLA women’s water polo is obviously a privilege to be a part of,” Gess said. “To be able to communicate and contact them and play in the water with them this weekend, it was just super cool.”

During the game, the announcer shared where the alumni have ended up, revealing that many of them have moved into coaching roles.

Highlighting one athlete in particular – Sarah Orozco, who graduated in 2012 and is now the head coach at Biola University – Wright said it means a lot to see these players coaching now. Wright was an assistant coach during Orozco’s first season in 2009, the last time the Bruins took home the NCAA title.

“If we can help her grow her program and help her and her staff in any way possible, we’re going to do that,” Wright said. “That’s the unique thing about Bruins is we stick together and we help each other. It was really special for me personally because I had the chance to get to coach Sarah.”

Kelsey Blacker, who played professionally in Spain for a year after graduating from UCLA in 2019, has also started coaching a team in addition to her day job.

Blacker said it has been great to have so many resources and to know that she always has someone in her corner.

“It’s awesome to see how evolved the team has become and how even though I don’t know any of these girls, they still welcome me back and it’s not weird and it’s fun,” Blacker said. “With all these girls here, it’s really great that we all came back.”

The game itself finished 12-5, with the alumni taking home the win. Goals for the alumni from redshirt senior goalkeeper Georgia Phillips and Wright himself – who scored from all the way across the pool – were met with the loudest cheers from the current players, who coached themselves during the game.

With a game against Hawai’i completed just an hour before, the Bruins had a lot on their minds over the weekend. Nevertheless, Wright wanted to make sure his team enjoyed the festivities.

“I told them we have to also be able to separate and enjoy times like this when our alumni come back,” Wright said. “Enjoy the event we had Saturday night, and understand how many people support them and how many people want them to reach their goals. For me, that’s really important that they grasp that and have the ability to kind of let go.”