NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Freshman driver Brett
Ormsby leads the ball away from junior Brandon
Brooks in the Bruins’ win over USC last weekend.
By Adam Titcher
Daily Bruin Contributor
Last Saturday UCLA defeated Cal in both water polo and football
in the Rose Bowl. This Saturday, they hope to repeat the feat with
a successful showing against Stanford in Palo Alto.
Although the top-ranked Cardinals have defeated the No. 2 Bruins
twice this season, neither match was a conference affair. So both
teams are undefeated in conference play, setting up for first place
bragging rights in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
“We have played them twice and this game is very
important,” Stanford head coach Dante Dettamanti said of the
Bruins and the upcoming game. “They’re a team we have
to beat and I expect it to be a really close game.”
The Bruins (9-2 overall, 4-0 MPSF) are extremely excited about
this weekend’s match-up.
It is not a must-win, but a victory will help them secure an
at-large bid for the MPSF tournament at the season’s end.
MEN’S WATERPOLO vs. Saturday 2 p.m. Avery
Aquatic Center
“If we get a win it will be huge,” UCLA freshman
driver Brett Ormsby said. “If we don’t, we still can
manage to get to the NCAA tournament.”
Stanford (13-0, 5-0) defeated UCLA 10-6 early in the season and
7-4 in the NorCal Tournament two weeks ago. The Bruins feel the
second game was a major improvement from the first.
“I hope we have come a long way since we first played
them,” junior two-meter defenseman Matt Flesher said.
“We will definitely see what we need to work on for the last
month of the season after this weekend.”
The Bruins, including the coaches, agree that improvement is
key. The players have not been able to accumulate a lot of
experience, but each game has added more depth to this squad.
UCLA head coach Adam Krikorian hopes his team shows a higher
level of play than they did last week when Cal sent them to
overtime.
Fortunately, the Bruins came out victorious, but the coaches
felt that it should never have happened.
“We have not found that killer instinct to put teams
away,” Krikorian said. “When you smell blood you should
go after it.”
The coaches also feel UCLA’s power-play defense and
offense must be in full effect to withstand Stanford.
In their last loss, UCLA was zero for six on the power-play
advantages, while Stanford was three for six ““ convincingly
what made the game.
“We have to play 100 percent the whole game because they
are never going to quit,” UCLA sophomore driver Nick Pacelli
said.