This post was updated Oct. 29 at 10:10 p.m.

On Halloween, many people wear costumes and visit haunted houses.

The Bruins, however, will suit up and visit top-three opponents.

No. 1 UCLA men’s water polo (17-1, 2-1 MPSF) will travel north to play No. 3 California (12-4, 1-2) on Saturday at Spieker Aquatics Complex before taking on No. 2 Stanford (15-2, 2-1) on Sunday at Avery Aquatic Center – marking the Bruins’ third time meeting each opponent this season. UCLA will look to gain the series advantage against Stanford after the blue and gold suffered its sole defeat of the season Oct. 3 at home.

UCLA is coming off a two-week break and a decisive 15-9 road victory over then-No. 3 USC on Oct. 17. The Bruins held a 6-2 lead by the end of the first quarter, one they never relinquished.

Junior attacker Ryder Dodd led UCLA in scoring with four goals. Three other Bruins – utilities junior Peter Castillo, freshman Luka Gladović and fifth-year Ben Larsen – joined him in notching multiple goals, with two apiece.

“Taking my opportunities when they came – that was the biggest thing,” Dodd said. “My teammates playing until the very end – that was a big thing. A lot of my goals came because my teammates were also doing things for me.”

After UCLA’s rivalry win, coach Adam Wright said his team improved defensively but still had room for improvement.

Fifth-year goalkeeper Griffen Price tallied a season-high 12 saves in his fourth start as a Bruin. He limited the Trojans to nine goals on 34 attempts for a 26.5% shot percentage – the cardinal and gold’s second-lowest mark of the season.

“Defense is our primary focus,” Price said. “We take teams to deep water when we play good defense, so as the season progresses, we’re just going to get tighter and tighter, and it’s going to accumulate to something special in the end.”

In UCLA’s 19-15 loss to Stanford, the blue and gold allowed its opponents to make 19 of their 30 attempts for a 63.3% clip. Despite knotting the score 10-10 with three minutes remaining in the third quarter, UCLA was unable to stymie Stanford’s seven-goal fourth frame.

The Bruins won their first match against the Cardinal on Sept. 20 by one point. UCLA held Stanford to a 33.3% shot percentage, but its own 35.5% clip kept the game tight. A last-second goal from Gladović allowed the Bruins to take their fourth straight Overnght MPSF Invitational title.

“Every game is a different story,” fifth-year attacker Frederico Jucá Carsalade said after UCLA’s loss to Stanford.

Stanford is rebuilding its win streak after falling 12-8 to Cal on Oct. 17, picking up wins against then-No. 9 Long Beach and then-No. 11 UC San Diego. It will host USC on Saturday before it meets UCLA again, when both squads will look to get ahead.

On the other hand, the Bruins are perfect against the Golden Bears this season, albeit winning by one- and two-point margins. In the UC rivals’ most recent matchup Oct. 4, UCLA limited Cal to 33.3% shooting as Dodd put up a game-high five goals on 10 attempts.

Since then, Cal has started a three-game win streak by defeating three top 20 teams – including then-No. 1 Stanford – by an average margin of 10 points.

After their top-ranked conference weekend, two more home games await the Bruins before the MPSF tournament begins Nov. 20.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Wright said after his squad defeated USC. “We got a couple weeks before we go back up north and play Cal and Stanford, and we can get a whole lot better over the course of those next two weeks.”