By Susana Zialcita
Daily Bruin Contributor
Goalkeeper Jamie Hipp will lead the UCLA women’s water
polo team into its doubleheader this weekend. The Bruins (8-3) face
Cal State Northridge on Saturday and Long Beach State on Sunday.
Hipp is going into the weekend on a five-game streak of reaching
the double-digit mark in saves.
“Jaime has been playing great,” assistant coach
Nicole Payne said. “She’s been playing with a lot of
confidence.”
Hipp missed the fall training while recovering from her third
shoulder surgery, so the first games of this season were her first
games since May 2001.
“The season felt really up in the air at first,”
Hipp said. “I hadn’t been practicing for so long so I
am just getting back my familiarity in the water.”
Hipp will need a little help from CSUN (2-3) to continue her
streak.
The team is in its inaugural season and might have a little
difficulty getting shots off against the aggressive Bruin
defense.
“It’s their first year in the league,” coach
Adam Krikorian said. “So they are really excited for their
first home game. It’s pretty neat to be a part of
that.”
Hipp and her teammates aren’t taking the rookie team
lightly.
“We want to come out and play really hard,” she
said. “It doesn’t matter who were playing, it’s
the mind set of all our players to go and give it our
all.”
LBSU (2-2) should prove to be more of a test for the Bruin team.
While the team is not one of the top four teams ““ UCLA, USC,
Cal and Stanford ““ the 49ers trail closely on the heels of
top-tier teams.
“They have a couple of girls that are really good
offensively,” Krikorian said. “They are good at
creating opportunities, they play aggressive and they’ve got
some outside shooters.”