The Bruins stumbled at the Barbara Kalbus Invitational two weeks ago, with historic losses to No. 1 Stanford and No. 3 Hawaii.

But now with two more MPSF wins under their belt, last year’s reigning national champions appear to be back on track.

“We finally have stacked together between 10 and 12 days of our best training,” said coach Adam Wright. “We talked about a full reset after the Kalbus – the standard wasn’t there. You can’t change that – what happened, happened. But credit goes to them for resetting.”

No. 4 UCLA women’s water polo (13-3, 3-0 MPSF) picked up back-to-back conference wins over the weekend at Spieker Aquatics Center, drowning No. 5 California (13-2, 1-1) on Friday 12-7 and No. 15 Indiana (12-6, 0-2) on Saturday 19-9.

“It was just awesome to see what we did in practice come together. There was a post to post pass with Pear (junior utility Anna Pearson) and Genoa (junior utility Genoa Rossi), that was really fun to see that happen in the game that we’ve been working on in practice,” said junior attacker Taylor Smith. “So it’s just little moments like that, little details that just make it fun when we’re playing out there.”

However, the Bruins still had their stumbles, with slow second quarters in both games.

Against Cal, Wright said he wanted the team to slow things down and take advantage of the time they had.

“Three times in a row, we get a new clock, and within the first four seconds, we’re throwing the ball back into the center,” Wright said. “Our center, they can’t do anything with it besides kick right back out.”

And against Indiana, UCLA scored just two goals in the second, after an eight-goal first quarter.

The Bruins also came up short on multiple 7-on-6 attempts, and committed five 2-meter penalties, with three in the first quarter against the Hoosiers.

“Those are free goals,” Wright said. “We’re playing great defense over here, we fall asleep on the opposite side, and there’s either a slam dunk or a penalty. Those, we have to clean up.”

But overall, the Bruins returned to their previous form.

UCLA’s eight first-period goals against Indiana were its second most in a single period this season.

And whether it was junior Bia Mantellato, senior Nicole Struss or Pearson, the Bruins found themselves dominant at center throughout the weekend.

“There’s no secret that the middle of our pool is really good,” Wright said. “They absolutely change our attack. The complexion of the attack is completely different because of the positions they’re holding.”

Pearson credited her teammates for her successes on the weekend – a combined four goals – and echoed Wright’s sentiment about the value of having three quality centers.

Smith led the Bruins with four goals in both games, with her eight total goals covering more than half her previous total of goals on the season at 15.

“Taylor is one of the better shooters, for sure. There were times early on, leading up before Kalbus, where she just was not in a good space. You see her approach on the goal was completely different today,” Wright said. “She approaches the goal with confidence, I don’t care if it’s a goal, but the way the ball comes off her hand so quick, it’s tough.”

Redshirt junior attacker Emma Lineback excelled on Saturday with four goals, including multiple from the right flank.

Smith said the message from Wright postgame was about continuing the way they have the last two weeks.

“We have to keep on going,” Smith said. “Keep stringing good practices together and good games, keep our energy up, communication and that the mistakes know that we make in games also reflect our training, so that we just have to keep on making each other better in practices.”

UCLA will face Princeton in a rare Thursday midday game, before heading up to Northern California for the weekend to close out their March schedule.