A top ranking comes with prestige, pressure and a target on one’s back – with every new opponent seeking an upset.

No. 1 UCLA men’s water polo (14-1, 1-1 MPSF) saw its 13-game undefeated streak come to an end Saturday afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Center, falling to No. 3 Stanford (13-1, 2-0) after posting its lowest score of the season, 9-7. However, the Bruins bounced back Sunday afternoon, defeating No. 6 California (8-6, 0-2) with a score of 14-9.

Despite sophomore attacker Wade Sherlock finding the back of the net early in the first quarter to push the Bruins to a 1-0 lead, the Cardinal were quick to respond offensively.

“We started off good in our first possession, we had a quick goal, we were attacking the goal in the right way,” said coach Adam Wright. “But then they put five straight goals on us in five minutes. Two penalties, a counter, one on nobody. They’re a counter-attack based team, and they were good at what they did.”

Stanford held a 5-1 lead at the start of the second quarter, but freshman attacker Ryder Dodd quickly made an impact, scoring two goals across the period. Despite outscoring the Cardinal 3-1 in the second quarter, the Bruins couldn’t close the gap enough to assume command, trailing 6-4 at halftime.

Redshirt sophomore attacker Frederico Jucá Carsalade gave the team a final spark of hope to open the fourth quarter – scoring early off an assist from Sherlock before assisting Sherlock for a goal of his own, closing the Cardinal’s lead to just one.

“I have the confidence of my teammates, I know they trust me. I know I trust them for everything,” Carsalade said. “So just having this confidence also helped me a lot.”

Despite Carsalade’s last-minute efforts in the dying embers of the contest, the team’s six final shots were unsuccessful, pushing the Cardinal to victory – and the Bruins to their sole loss of the season thus far.

“Of course, it’s not fun to lose, but at the same time, we deserved to lose that game. From a loss, you can learn a lot and change, but the question is, will you change?” Wright said. “And that’s where we’re at now. We’re going to see if we can change and learn something from that loss.”

The team faced an opportunity for redemption less than 24 hours later, facing California – last year’s national champions – Sunday afternoon.

Dodd converted a penalty shot to open scoring against the Bears – a lead the Bruins wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the game.

Carsalade tallied a season-high five assists across the affair, his fifth converting into Dodd’s seventh goal of the match – a career-high for the freshman.

“My teammates did a great job of finding me in the pool, which obviously led to a great amount of shots at the attacks I was able to have,” Dodd said. “I think after yesterday’s game (against Stanford), I felt like I didn’t do enough, and I came in here today (against California) with the hope of doing a little bit better.”

The Bruins’ win over the Bears also featured the return of graduate student attacker Jack Larsen. After missing the past seven games due to injury, the fifth-year contributed one goal to the team’s 14-9 win over the 2023 national champions.

Wright said that while the team was able to successfully bounce back, it’s looking to hone in on consistency throughout the rest of the season.

“There’s some positives too, when we did things the right way we put them in a tough position. But it’s about being consistent,” Wright said. “That’s something we’ve been talking about for a long time, if you can’t be consistent, at some point you’re going to get caught. And they got caught against a really good Stanford team yesterday.”