The Bruins earned their fourth conference win of the season and tacked on two more wins.

No. 4 UCLA women’s water polo (16-3, 4-0 MPSF) added three wins to its season record, starting with a win over No. 12 Princeton (12-5, 4-1 Collegiate Water Polo Association) on Thursday at home. On Saturday and Sunday, respectively, the squad defeated No. 18 San Jose State (11-8, 0-2 MPSF) and No. 20 Pacific (9-7, 3-1 Golden Coast Conference) on the road.

The Bruins tallied double-digit goal counts against the latter two opponents, with 19-6 and 16-8 scorelines, while they beat the Tigers by just two points in a 9-7 victory.

Junior utility Anna Pearson led the way for the Bruins over the weekend with 11 goals, including a career-high tying six goal performance over Pacific. Pearson and fellow center junior center Bia Mantellato — who notched seven goals across the weekend – teamed up to score nearly 39% of the Bruins’ goals over the three games.

“We’ve been working on getting balls inside, so when the balls do come in, it’s our job to finish it,” Pearson said. “But it was really a team effort.”

Coach Adam Wright reiterated what he’s said in the past – he believes Pearson is one of the nation’s best centers.

“She’s an absolute monster down in there,” Wright said. “She gets so much attention for the other defenses – most of the time they’re falling back quickly. Because if she gets in a situation where she’s got a one-on-one opportunity, she’s finishing the ball at a very high percentage.”

On Saturday, UCLA and San Jose State traded goals back and forth until it was 3-3 in the second quarter.

Scoring two goals in 35 seconds earned the Bruins their first multigoal lead, and the gap only grew from there. While the Bruins buried 14 more goals, the Spartans scored just three more.

“Probably a little excited, some passes that need to be a little better, shooting hitting the bar,” Wright said. “But once they settled in the rest of the way, it was 5-2 in the second, 6-1, 6-1. So it was good overall.”

Wright added that his team held strong on defense and maintained good counter structure on Saturday.

“We worked a lot on our structure and playing as a team, working for each other, focusing on our little details,” Mantellato said.

And in Sunday’s match in Stockton, UCLA doubled up Pacific, although Wright said he’d have preferred his team to have allowed just six goals rather than the eight they conceded.

The Bruins now have a 20-day break before they play the only three teams ranked above them in April.

Wright said that break will include a chance for the student-athletes to focus on their final exams before they work on sharpening up.

“We have to get better at our zone attacks, so that’s shooting and how we’re moving. Our transition as always, that’s starting to really pay off, but we can’t be satisfied with where it’s at,” Wright said. “We got to take care of the ball better and force teams to actually play defense. Turnovers doesn’t force them to play defense.”