Polo loses narrowly in overtime crunch
Covec scores five goals in UCLA’s weekend upset to Pepperdine
Waves
By Esther Hui
Daily Bruin Staff
It was a heart-breaking defeat for the No. 4 UCLA men’s water
polo team as they lost to No. 6 Pepperdine 10-9 in overtime Sunday.
The Bruins had battled back from a three-point deficit in the third
quarter to lead 9-8 at the end of the fourth, but the Waves scored
a goal with eight seconds remaining, sending the game into overtime
where a goal gave them the eventual win.
"We knew it was going to be an extremely tough game," Pepperdine
head coach Terry Schroeder said. "It was the best game we’ve been
in this season as far as evenly matched teams, but emotionally we
came out on top. If you can win those one point games it definitely
helps your confidence."
The Bruins (10-8 overall, 2-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports
Conference) played well defensively, allowing the Waves to convert
on only two of seven man-up situations, but were able to score on
only 3 of 11 power plays.
"Our six on five killed us," UCLA head coach Guy Baker said. "We
had three (man-up) opportunities in overtime didn’t score on any of
them, that’s the ball game."
Team-captain Scott Turner agreed, "It just came down to six on
fives, we didn’t put away our opportunities. It’s a tough loss,
it’s even worse losing in overtime, we were up by one with 33
seconds left, we let down a little bit and Pepperdine got in."
The Bruins exploded to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. UCLA was
assisted by freshman Steve Covec, who scored all three of the
Bruins opening goals  one of which was from two-point range.
Covec went on to score two more goals.
"Covec had a great game," Baker said. "He got us off to a great
start, won our first four points of the game. Steve had a
phenomenal game, biggest game of the year and he came through like
that."
The Bruins maintained their lead until the end of the third
quarter when a two-point shot by Pepperdine’s Larry Felix put the
score at 7-8. At the start of the fourth quarter UCLA’s Adam
Krikorian was ejected because of excessive fouling and the Bruins
were left without a driver for the remainder of the game.
"It hurt the game because Adam’s such a fighter," assistant
coach Matt Emerzian said of Krikorian’s ejection. "His energy’s
really contagious to the rest of the team."
With 2:31 remaining in the game, a pass from UCLA freshman
Luther Weidner set Mark Sutter up to score, evening the game at
8-8. With 33 seconds remaining, Covec scored his fifth goal of the
match with another assist by Weidner, to give the Bruins a 9-8
lead.
The Waves called a time out, and then regrouped with driver
Zachary Holder scoring the game-tying goal.
Pepperdine’s Alan Herrmann scored the only overtime goal with 34
seconds remaining in the first period, to end the game 10-9.
The loss puts the Bruins in an uncertain position leading up to
the NCAA tournament. Wins in the two remaining conference matches
against No. 1 Stanford and Irvine will determine the Bruins
postseason status.
"It’s a dogfight between us, Pepperdine, and UOP," Baker said.
"Everybody’s one on one, two of the three teams are going to go and
one’s not."
The Bruins play Air Force tomorrow at Sunset Canyon Pool at 3
p.m.