Tuesday, April 14, 1998
MPSF tournament easy as one, two, three for Bruins
WATER POLO: Team triumphs over third championship in three
conference appearances
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference tournament for
women’s water polo has only been in existence for three years.
However, in that short span, the title has been in the pocket of
the UCLA squad. The team added their third title in as many years
last weekend.
"It feels great," UCLA head coach Guy Baker said. "I’m really
proud of the fact that it’s the third year of the championship, and
we won all three years. Each year, it’s been against a different
team, so we’ve been the one consistent team in the championship
mix."
The third conference championship comes as no surprise, as the
Bruins have been dominating the collegiate circuit with a virtually
perfect record – they’ve only lost three games in three
seasons.
And this tournament was no different in terms of Bruin
domination.
Friday was a just a warm-up, as the Bruins easily beat host
school University of the Pacific 14-2 and UC Santa Barbara
10-4.
"We worked our way into the tournament Friday," Baker said. "I
thought our bench players, the White Team, particularly did a good
job against U of Pacific. As for Santa Barbara, it was the fifth
time we played them this year and we beat them 12-1 the last time.
So our effort wasn’t that great in that game."
The same went against San Jose State on Saturday. The Bruins
easily beat them, 11-2.
The games got more challenging as the tournament approached the
final. San Diego State gave the Bruins a rough time with a physical
game the last time the two teams met. But this time around, the
Bruins were well prepared. They won 12-3.
"We played a very good game against San Diego State," Baker
said. "We did a lot better job moving, and we had a great fast
break. We got on the team early – we were 9-1 at the half and just
kind of went from there."
Sunday, the No. 1 Bruins played a close game with No. 2 Stanford
for the tournament title. The Cardinal had played well throughout
the weekend and beat out No. 3 Cal 6-1 the day before to reach the
final.
The Bruins had the early advantage with a 6-3 lead at the half.
The first minute of the second half, the Cardinal scored to make it
6-4. Both defenses held out to keep the score constant for the rest
of the game.
"Stanford gave us a lot of challenge," said sophomore playmaker
Erin Golaboski, who scored two goals for the Bruins. "We usually
bring it in the third and fourth quarter but this time they didn’t
let us score.
"By the last game, we played better as a team than in the
beginning of the tournament, because it’s hard to play consistently
against teams that don’t put as much effort into it. When we play
harder teams, like we did in the last two games, we connect
better."
"In that game,"added junior set defender Katie Tenenbaum, "we
may not have done great offensively, but we definitely did well
defensively."
Tenenbaum also scored two crucial goals for the Bruins with some
smooth assists.
"Those came on 6-on-5," she said. "I was on the post, and I got
two passes that were perfect, so that always helps."
With that win against Stanford, UCLA achieved a conference
three-peat. Considering this is the varsity program’s fourth year,
the Bruins have made a giant leap into the top.
"I’m a sophomore, so it’s only my second year that I get to
enjoy this, but it’s great," Golaboski said. "It says a lot about
UCLA and our water polo program. Hopefully we’ll keep it
going."
There are only two tournaments left in the season – the Western
regional and the national championship. Because of UCLA’s success
in the MPSF tournament, it is guaranteed No. 1 seed in the
national.
"From now on," Baker said, "we’ll be playing only tournaments,
so this weekend was a good way to get ready for the regional
qualification round and the national. It’s been a while since
either of the teams played a five-game tournament, so I think both
teams just ran out of gas by the end of the weekend."
The regional will be in two weeks and the national championships
will follow in two more. The Bruins have another three-peat on
their mind as they click into high gear.
"Going into the last two tournaments," Tenenbaum said, "it gives
us a confidence boost to win the conference, but we know there are
also things we can work on, like playing with high intensity for
the whole weekend.
"We’ll have four more weeks to practice, so I think we’re
definitely going to be ready for the national to try for our
third."
AARON TOUT/Daily Bruin
Kristin Guerin tries to score against San Jose State.