By Jessica Bach
Daily Bruin Contributor
It was a game of catch-up for the UCLA men’s lacrosse team
in Saturday’s 7-6 loss to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
The Mustangs dominated the first quarter, coming out with four
quick goals in the first 10 minutes, leaving the Bruins scrambling,
unsuccessfully, the rest of the game.
“We had a slow first quarter,” freshman midfielder
Stephan Howsephian said. “We lacked the intensity we needed,
but the last three quarters we really stepped it up to another
level.”
In the last three quarters the Bruins outscored Cal Poly 6-3,
but it wasn’t enough for them to win. After being down by
four, the Bruins were finally able to score in the beginning of the
second quarter and by halftime had scored two more goals, cutting
the Mustangs’ lead to two.
During the second half, UCLA was able to tie the game at 5-5 but
Cal Poly came back with two more goals, ultimately winning by
one.
“We came out tentative early on,” head coach Mike
Allan said. “But I was very proud of the effort that was made
as we were able to fight back the rest of the game. We wanted to
play on our experience, but that didn’t really happen at
first.”
The game did feature outstanding play from one of the
team’s newest members, freshman goalie Spencer Fivelson, who
had 19 saves.
“The defense made it easy for me to do my job,”
Fivelson said.
But despite the loss, the Bruins only reaffirmed their
confidence in this season’s team.
“The fact that we were able to play so hard after the
first quarter shows me how good we can actually play,”
Howsephian said.