For the second weekend in a row, the UCLA women’s water polo team squared off with crosstown rival USC. For the second weekend in a row, the team fell behind early. And for the second weekend in a row, the Bruins overcame a fourth-quarter deficit to stun the Trojans.
This past weekend had the Bruins playing in their second Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matchup of the season, traveling to the not-so-friendly confines of USC’s McDonald’s Swim Stadium, a venue at which the team hadn’t played in two years.
Failing to score a goal in the first quarter, No. 1 UCLA (13-1, 2-0 MPSF) was unable to crack the defense of No. 3 USC (11-3, 1-1 MPSF) early on and trailed 4-2 at the half.
“In a game like that you always come out with a lot of excitement, you come out with a lot of energy, and I almost felt like we were a little bit overwhelmed by all of that emotion early in the game,” coach Brandon Brooks said. “We missed some easy opportunities and that resulted in us being down.”
However, Bruins showed heart down the stretch, outscoring USC 2-1 in the third quarter and blanking them 2-0 in the fourth quarter to claim a hard-fought 6-5 victory.
“Everyone is eager to do well and I think that’s key for us to coming back and just having a lot of heart and wanting to do things correctly,” senior attacker Sarah Orozco said.
A strong defensive effort by the team was once again led by senior goalkeeper Caitlin Dement, who tallied 11 saves and gave her team a chance to win by stifling the Trojan offense in the second half.
“Everyone’s fighting for every goal we’ve scored and never giving up,” Dement said. “It’s not a matter of a different mentality from the first quarter to the fourth quarter, it’s just that we refuse to give up.”
The team struggled in six-on-five advantage situations early on in the game, but was able to convert when it counted. A six-on-five goal by sophomore utility Becca Dorst brought the game to a 5-5 tie with 3:31 to play before a lob shot by junior attacker Gisselle Naranjo broke the tie less than a minute later.
This weekend’s defeat of USC allows UCLA to maintain its No. 1 ranking, which it will once again defend this Saturday against No. 12 San Jose State. It will be the Bruins’ first conference game at the Spieker Aquatics Center this season.
“We can’t just sit back and relax,” Orozco said. “We have to keep working harder just like all those teams under us that are working that much harder to beat us. We all want to win and we’re just going to do our best to stay at the top.”