PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan
Yeilding fields the ball with authority during a match
against Princeton earlier this month.
By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 3 UCLA men’s water polo team will try to defend
their championship this weekend, when they take on UC Santa Barbara
on Friday and Pepperdine on Sunday afternoon.
“This is a huge weekend for us,” said sophomore
attacker and two-meter defender Matt Flesher.
On Friday afternoon, the Bruins play at Santa Barbara for their
second conference game of the season.
“These two games count for our conference record,”
said head coach Adam Krikorian. “We play each team in the
conference once every season and these games determine how we do in
the conference tournament at the end of the year.”
This weekend will be a key one in terms of conference
placement.
“We will have three conference games out of seven out of
our way after this weekend,” Flesher said.
The Bruins are confident going into their opener on the first
important weekend of the season.
“They (Santa Barbara) are redshirting some of their better
players this year, so they are not as strong as they usually
are,” Krikorian said. “As long as we are playing the
way we are capable of playing, we should come away with
victory.”
The team is greatly anticipating the game on Sunday against No.
8 Pepperdine.
“This is probably the biggest game of the year for
us,” Krikorian said. “They redshirted probably three of
their best players preparing for this year. They only have one loss
against them this year.”
The Bruins will need to play at the top of their game to finish
this weekend ahead of the other teams.
“We are trying to go 3-0 in the conference heading into
next week,” Krikorian said. “We will definitely need to
bring in our “˜A’ game in order to beat these
guys.”
Junior playmaker Jeff Pflueger added, “Experience is key.
These aren’t just teams that you walk by and look past,
because every team has potential to get you on your bad
days.”
Last week, UCLA beat No. 9 University of the Pacific 12-1, and
used that win to restore its confidence after losing the season
opener to UC Irvine.
“Our confidence is back after our losses in the beginning
of the season,” Pflueger said. “We are realizing that
anything can happen.”
“I feel really confident about our team right now,”
Krikorian added. “Whenever you go into the season ranked No.
1 and drop the first games, you worry about how the team will
respond. This team has responded well to that.”
The Bruins expect to achieve their anticipated victories by
maintaining their level of play throughout the weekend.
“We just have been getting better every game because of
good practices and we have been getting used to playing with each
other again,” Flesher said.
This weekend’s play is key for another reason ““ to
maintain momentum throughout the season.
“It’s important for us to play our game and get the
Ws, especially when the end of the season comes up,” Pflueger
said.