The Bruins’ Achilles’ heel has been exposed.

No. 2 UCLA men’s water polo (18-1, 2-1 MPSF) will look to rebound from its first loss of the season when it hosts No. 3 Stanford (12-4, 1-2) Saturday and No. 4 California (14-3, 1-2) Sunday.

The two games mark UCLA’s final home weekend before the postseason, offering a chance to solidify MPSF tournament seeding.

UCLA’s most recent homestand featured mixed results. The Bruins opened with a 23-10 win over then-No. 13 Princeton, with 12 Bruins reaching the back of the net.

The momentum came to a halt a week later, however, with a 13-12 loss to then-No. 3 USC that shattered UCLA’s perfect record.

“For us, it’s of course UCLA versus USC, but they’re a top team in the country,” said coach Adam Wright. “It doesn’t change things for us. Maybe for the crowd it does, but for us it doesn’t, so we just couldn’t match the energy.”

Eight Bruins scored against the Trojans, led by sophomore attacker Ryder Dodd’s four goals and one assist. Redshirt senior attacker Chase Dodd added a pair of goals and assists each, while redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Nate Tauscher recorded 13 saves. UCLA led 6-4 midway through the second period, but a season-high 13 turnovers contributed to a USC comeback. The Trojans capitalized late, reclaiming the lead with 46 seconds remaining.

The Bruins are putting defense at the forefront in preparation for their next outings.

“First off, we need to defensively get our hands on the ball more and just put our blocks, and for myself as a goalie to be in a position,” Tauscher said. “Making more blocks early makes it easier for everyone, so getting our hand on the ball, shot blocking and myself in the game was huge, and I think we can work on that.”

UCLA’s defense has limited opponents to single-digit goals in 11 of its 19 games this season. But Tauscher allowed 13 goals against USC – the most the Bruins have conceded all year.

“We had one field block, but we have to help our goalie,” Wright said. “We got caught up in the one-on-one battles, and those are things that we had discussed at length that we wanted to do.”

The Bruins and the Cardinal are no strangers this season.

UCLA has taken both previous meetings – topping Stanford 13-12 in the semifinals of the Overnght MPSF Invitational on Sept. 20 before claiming a 14-11 win on the road two weeks later. The Bruins flipped a 9-6 third-period deficit into an 8-2 closing run in the latter matchup, powered by Ryder Dodd’s four goals and a composed penalty conversion from redshirt junior attacker Frederico Jucá Carsalade to seal the victory.

Heading into the double matchup, the Bruins are carrying the loss with them.

“This experience is definitely humbling to us and will make us work even harder for the next games to come,” Ryder Dodd said. “I’m kind of excited for what’s to come, but we still have to look at this and these last few moments – the last game in general – to study where we went wrong.”

Despite a 1-2 conference record, the Cardinal remains in contention for a top MPSF seed. While Stanford boasts an overall winning record against the blue and gold, UCLA has won the last four matchups. The Bruins will face California for the third time this year on Saturday. UCLA has already defeated the Golden Bears twice this season.

UCLA has been 8-1 at home and undefeated in neutral and away contests this season. The Bruins will close the regular season in the next two weeks before heading to the MPSF tournament in late November.