NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Freshman two-meter Ted
Peck looks to pass the ball in a match against USC.
MEN’S WATERPOLO vs. MPSF
Tournament First round Friday, 11/23 2 p.m. @ Berkeley,
CA
By Eric Perez
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA men’s water polo team has now hit the
postseason.
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament will begin on
Friday at the Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley, and No. 2 UCLA
(13-3, 7-1 MPSF) is not shying away from the conference crown.
“We’re going in to win this thing,” UCLA head
coach Adam Krikorian said. “We want to win three games in a
row and win the tournament and then obviously that’s an
automatic bid. So I don’t think we can expect anything
else.”
Two places are earmarked in the MPSF conference tournament for
bids to the NCAA Final Four in Palo Alto.
The winner of the eight team tournament will receive an
automatic bid to the Final Four and then, after the tournament, a
committee will decide on who receives the at-large bid. The
at-large bid is generally reserved for the team with the next best
overall record alongside the tournament champions.
This makes the tournament a free-for-all to salvage their
seasons and win a right to play for the NCAA crown.
“The tournament is so different from every other (season)
game,” undergraduate assistant coach Sean Kern said.
“In this tournament they know this is their only shot. Each
team, even if they’re like Santa Barbara or Long Beach,
they’re going to keep going at you the whole game.”
The Bruins’ first game is against No. 7 seed UC Santa
Barbara (8-11, 2-6), who have fared poorly throughout the
tournament. On paper, UCLA should cruise through their first game,
but the Gauchos have played the Bruins close, losing 8-7 Nov.
4.
“They are probably the most emotional team in college
water polo right now,” sophomore driver Nick Pacelli said.
“They play with a lot of intensity; they’re not
necessarily the most talented but they definitely play with the
most heart.”
In that game, the Bruins were one game removed from an emotional
come from behind 8-7 victory against Pepperdine and had let the
Gauchos crawl back into the game in the second half.
UCLA has to keep their intensity level up over the course of
possibly three days.
“One game a weekend, two games a weekend is tough in
itself. But three games and every game (means) that the stakes are
even higher,” sophomore driver Albert Garcia said.
“That’s pretty intense, you’ve got to be mentally
and physically prepared to go at it.”
Top-ranked Stanford has the best record in the overall standings
and is the favorite to win the automatic bid. If the Cardinal wins
the MPSF tournament, the Bruins would most likely advance to the
Final Four with a strong showing. But they don’t want to
leave anything to chance.
“We don’t want the judges or let other people to
determine our fate,” Garcia said. “We want to win the
tournament for ourselves.”