TYSON EVANS Women’s water polo head coach Adam
Krikorian shows off the MPSF trophy his team earned
Sunday. UCLA d. USC 7-6 UCLA d. Stanford 11-7
By Colin Yuhl
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA women’s water polo team are the two-time
defending national champions, and are loathe to yield that title
without a fight.
This weekend, facing the best competition in the nation, the
Bruins defeated No. 2 USC 7-6 and No. 1 Stanford 11-7 en route to
the MPSF conference championship.
By winning the conference tournament, UCLA secured the top seed
in the NCAA tournament. The at-large team will be officially
announced Monday, but it’s a mere formality. Stanford will
assuredly be the team invited to take the second seed.
The team got off to a solid start against No. 6 San Jose State.
Behind four goals from senior center Kelly Heuchan, UCLA dispatched
San Jose State in the opening round. However, things were going to
get much tougher in the second round.
The much anticipated second round matchup against the Trojans
proved to be as physical and intense as expected. Both teams played
tenacious defense, and scoring opportunities mostly came as a
result of player ejections. In fact, eight of the thirteen goals
scored occurred during six-on-five power plays. But that stat is
slightly deceiving, as many fouls went without being called.
“I think the officials did a good job. They found a good
balance between letting us play and calling it tight,” head
coach Adam Krikorian said.
While not usually counted on for offense, junior center defender
Robin Beuregard nevertheless carried the team with three goals, one
of which was a powerful shot from eight meters out.
Defensively, the Bruins leaned heavily
on their goalkeeper, junior Jamie Hipp. Hipp played brilliantly,
notching 12 saves. On one possession in particular, the Trojans
staged a ferocious rally, launching three shots on goal. But each
time Hipp stonewalled them.
Hipp, for her part, enjoyed being tested by one of the top teams
in the nation.
“Playing USC is really fun for a goalie. They have some
great players and take a lot of shots. I think today I was just
really pumped up, because this was such an important game,”
Hipp said.
The post-game celebration revealed just how physical the game
had been. Multiple members of the team had swimsuits badly torn,
and junior attacker Maureen Flanagan sported a nasty black eye.
“It was kind of a cheap shot, because it happened in the
last few seconds. The only thing that made me mad was that I
didn’t have a chance to get her back,” Flanagan
said.
UCLA and Stanford faced each other for the fourth time this
season in the championship round, but this time the result was
different. The Bruins won for the first time this year, and this is
only their second victory in their last nine games against the
Cardinal. The only other win came at last year’s NCAA
championship game.
“I think the only difference today was the ability to put
eleven goals on the board,” Krikorian said.
“They’re such a great defensive team, any time you can
score that many is quite an accomplishment.”