The Bruins are one win away from the next chapter.

But before the championship bracket opens, the road back to a national title begins with a familiar postseason rhythm: a long layoff, a corrective training stretch and an opening round opponent built to test composure.

No. 2 seed UCLA men’s water polo (24-2, 5-1 MPSF) opens its postseason campaign against Princeton (23-9, 9-1 NWPC) at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center on Friday. The Bruins received an at-large bid after finishing as the MPSF runner-up two weeks ago at the same venue, and the Tigers captured the NWPC Championship to earn their spot.

The reigning NCAA champions’ last outing ended in a 14-11 loss to USC in the MPSF title match. The Bruins split the crosstown rivalry regular season series by one-goal margins both times but struggled to match the Trojans’ pace in the championship game, trailing their opponent for the majority of the match.

Coach Adam Wright said the second stage of the postseason presents a narrow window to sharpen details.

“It’s an opportunity to get better as individuals and as a group,” Wright said. “There aren’t many more of those.”

That balance has shown in recent results. UCLA’s defense held 12 opponents to single-digit scoring in 2025, and the Bruins scored 32 combined goals across their final two regular-season conference games – including 14-13 and 18-12 finishes against then-No. 1 USC and then-No. 4 California, respectively.

Wright said that improved shot selection in six-on-five situations is a priority. Turnovers plagued the team at crucial moments this season – especially when UCLA posted five in the MPSF final, quelling the squad’s comeback attempt.

Princeton will bring balanced scoring and a defense that carried it to a 9-1 conference record and a conference title. The Tigers boast multiple double-digit scorers and facilitate offensive production across a deep rotation that includes seven players with 30 total goals and almost five with 50 – a contrast to UCLA’s condensed scoring threats in the MPSF final.

Leadership and poise have become cornerstones for the Bruins. Sophomore attacker Ryder Dodd – fresh off an MPSF-championship hat trick – said the key is simple: stay in their style and avoid lapses that helped USC prevail.

“We just have to clean up our decision-making, make it more precise,” Dodd said. “We got out of our game a little. We started to fall into our game, which doesn’t benefit us nearly as much.”

The Bruins rallied back from multiple deficits during the regular season, but redshirt senior attacker Chase Dodd said that the film from the MPSF tournament revealed urgent areas for refinement.

“We have small things we can work on that will help us in two weeks,” Chase Dodd said. “This game tells us we’re not perfect. … It gives a chip on your shoulder.”

The Bruins enter the NCAA tournament having won 10 of their last 12 games, and they rank among the national leaders in goal differential.

UCLA also enters the tournament with a similar factor to last year’s successful championship run: an MPSF title-game loss followed by a refocused push into the NCAA bracket – a sequence that ended with a national championship.

And as Chase Dodd framed it: “Take it one game at a time … because the next game could be my last.”