By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Sunday afternoon the UC San Diego men’s water polo team of
the Western Water Polo Association lost 11-2 to the UCLA Bruins of
the mighty Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in the finals of the
NCAA Championship. In the process, however, the Tritons did
something no non-MPSF team had ever done.
They made it that far.
In the NCAA semifinals at Pepperdine the day before, the No.
3-seeded Tritons (21-9) upset No. 2-seeded USC (24-3) 9-8 for the
school’s first-ever victory over USC and first-ever trip to
the NCAA finals.
“I don’t want to get too emotional, but this is a
pretty amazing thing,” UCSD coach Denny Harper said after
that game. “Not a lot of people understand that UCSD is not
an athletic institution. We don’t award scholarships, and we
just moved from Division III to Division II.
“It makes a game like this more monumental.”
What happened Saturday was an anomaly. That isn’t the way
men’s college water polo works. Here’s how it’s
supposed to go: Winner of the MPSF tournament gets the top seed.
Another top team in the MPSF gets the second seed. Winner of the
WWPA gets the third seed, and winner of the Eastern conference gets
the fourth seed. No. 1 seed always beats No. 4 seed, No. 2 seed
eliminates No. 3 seed, and the top two seeds (of course MPSF teams)
battle it out in finals ““ that’s the way it’s
always been.
Until Saturday.
With a roster full of guys who came to UCSD more for an
education than to play water polo ““ yes, that’s one
electrical engineering, two structural engineering, two computer
engineering, and one animal physiology and neuroscience
student-athletes who line the roster ““ the Tritons managed to
upstage the usual course of the tournament and prove that the
phrase “moral victory” isn’t just a bunch of
empty words.
“This is truly David slaying Goliath. It’s the
greatest win ever in my coaching career,” Harper said.
Both Harper and USC coach Jovan Vivac figured the Trojans were
looking past the Tritons to the expected finals matchup.
“I think we were really fired up against UCLA,”
Vivac said.
“I think (the Trojans) were so focused on playing UCLA
they kind of forgot, “˜Oh yeah, we nearly lost to (UCSD) at
their pool,'” Harper said, referring to USC’s 7-5
win over UCSD on Sept. 24. “I don’t want to speak for
Jovan, but I’m sure he addressed UCLA quite a bit.”
The Tritons scored first and held the lead throughout the game,
though the Trojans tied them throughout the match. USC got its only
lead of the game at 6-5, but the Tritons stormed back to tie the
game.
“They maintained their poise,” Harper said.
“Sometimes you see the underdog start to crack, see the
wheels come off when you start to lose it. Our guys did a great job
of staying focused.”
In the final quarter, with the Tritons up 8-7, Vivac called a
timeout. On the ensuing play, USC fell back into a swarming
defense, with three players in the goalie box and four others
protecting it. Despite the defense, Triton junior 2-meter man Brett
Allan scored right between the goalie and a defender to lead
9-7.
USC quickly closed the gap, with senior driver Steve
O’Rourke tossing one over UCSD senior goalie Glenn Busch to
trail by only one at 9-8.
With less than 30 seconds left, it looked like USC would manage
to tie the game. USC attempted the same play that worked last time,
trying to toss the ball over Busch. But Busch raised his arm and
jumped to intercept the ball, putting up a game-saving block that
elicited a gasp from the fans and brought the crowd to its
feet.
He tossed the ball to Boettner, who held it for the rest of the
game and pumped his fist as the seconds ticked away.
“(The save) was huge,” Harper said. “That
(USC) guy had a pretty good opportunity on the spin move.
“It was no longer about offense, it was about defense. It
was an awesome save.”
Nobody thought they could do it, but the Tritons persisted in
believing in themselves.
Senior 2-meter man and team captain Justin Wylie mentioned that
two weeks ago at the WWPA conference championships in Hawaii, many
of the seniors on other WWPA teams commented that Hawaii was a
great place to end their careers.
“And I thought, “˜Well, Malibu’s a great place
to end our season,'” Wylie said.
He added that the intimidation factor is indeed present when his
team plays an MPSF team. He notices his team grows more
cautious.
“You can see a difference in a player when we play an MPSF
team. Instead of taking that shot on the outside, a guy might pass
it instead,” Wylie said. “It affects everyone on the
whole.”
But for the NCAA Final Four, the Tritons were able to push their
worries aside.
“The NCAAs takes care of itself. Once you get in that
pool, you’re gonna play your best,” Wylie said.
The Tritons may have lost the championship Sunday, but the fact
they were there to lose at all proves something. It proves that the
NCAA championship game is no longer an MPSF stranglehold. It proves
that the little non-scholarship, Division II school that thought it
could really can. And it proves that sometimes, a moral victory can
be a sweet one indeed.