Revenge is best served cold. But the Bruins fought with fire Sunday afternoon.

No. 1 seed UCLA men’s water polo (26-2, 5-1 MPSF) took down No. 2 seed USC (23-6, 2-4) to claim the NCAA championship title at Avery Aquatic Center in Palo Alto. With a final goal from graduate student attacker Jack Larsen, the Bruins claimed the national champion honor for the first time since 2020 with a score of 11-8. 

“It was our discipline. I think playing each possession to the fullest ability was our best thing. Every possession has a life, so we just played every possession as its own life,” said freshman attacker Ryder Dodd. “And through there, we just gained our opportunities and executed on, which overall gave us a huge upside at the end of the game, which led to where we are today.”

After succumbing to a 15-13 loss to the Trojans in the MPSF West championship Nov. 24, the Bruins earned redemption against its conference rival Sunday.  

Neither team granted the other the upper hand across the entirety of the match. Both responded to the other’s scores with goals of their own. 

The Bruins were the first to dent the scoreboard with two straight goals from graduate student centers Aaron Voggenthaler and Nico Tierney, but were immediately countered with two goals from the Trojans, a pattern that would continue throughout the match. 

Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Nate Tauscher led the Bruins’ defense with 10 saves across the match, stepping into the position of starting goalkeeper for the team at the beginning of the NCAA tournament.  

“Nobody knows what we’re dealing with,” Wright said. “Garret Griggs is out with a hand injury. In steps Tauscher, and the kid played three games all year, and look at what he has done here for us.”

Redshirt junior attacker Chase Dodd closed the gap between the teams in the second quarter, netting his first goal of the game to push the score to 3-3. His efforts later proved effective as his second goal landed the Bruins their biggest lead of the game in the fourth quarter, 10-7.

The Bruins struggled to monopolize on power play opportunities on both sides of the ball, missing out on all six of their 5-on-6 opportunities, and allowing the Trojans to score on 66% of their own across the first half of the championship match. 

Redshirt sophomore Frederico Jucá Carsalade – the 5-foot-11 attacker –  was able to counter the Trojan’s 6-foot-7 Andrej Grgurevic’s third quarter goal in a matter of 15 seconds, ultimately balancing the scoreboard six apiece.

With Ryder Dodd’s second goal of the game, the Paris Olympian broke the MPSF all-time single-season scoring record, notching his 102nd goal of the year.

“I can’t even put it into words,” Ryder Dodd said. “It’s been such a long year, so many good things, so many highs.”

With the final buzzer cementing his team’s fate, coach Adam Wright jumped into the pool to join his squad in celebration. 

The win marked the team’s 13th national championship and UCLA’s 124th NCAA title. Wright also notched his second NCAA championship title of the calendar year after winning the title with the women’s team in May. 

The Bruins honored the death of former Bruin Patrick Woepse by wearing the initials of the former national champion – and husband of former Bruin Olympian Maddie Musselman Woepse – on the back of their caps across the tournament. Woepse, who died earlier this season, earned back-to-back national championships in 2014 and 2015 during his time at UCLA. 

“This guy on my shoulder, he’s with us. Pat Woepse, he was a program changer, he’s a culture changer,” Wright said. “It’s a big crush to our program, but we carry Pat wherever we go, and Pat carries us.”