The Bruins’ goal has not changed.
UCLA men’s water polo claimed Westwood’s only national championship a season ago after navigating an altered season schedule and timeline. The Bruins will return every starter and each of their top-16 scorers this year as they attempt to win back-to-back titles for the first time since 2015.
Graduate student attacker and 2020 NCAA Player of the Year Nicolas Saveljic – given an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic – will return for a fifth season with the blue and gold. The conference’s leading scorer in 2020 said last season taught the Bruins how to adjust to any situation.
“One thing we learned from COVID was how to be adaptable and flexible,” Saveljic said. “We try to keep things consistent. Whatever is on the plate, whatever is on the schedule, we just adjust and try to be the best we can.”
Graduate student attacker Chasen Travisano and redshirt senior utility Evan Rosenfeld similarly benefited from extra eligibility, while UCLA will also welcome back redshirt senior utility Felix Brozyna-Vilim .
Despite the program winning four of the last seven national championships, Travisano said coach Adam Wright’s team culture allows the Bruins to remain hungry.
“Everything that we do revolves around our culture,” Travisano said. “I think the team’s in a great place, but there’s always room to improve. We’re never going to sit and look in the mirror and say, ‘We’ve arrived.’ That’s an important thing is to just never be content. As all the older guys are leaving, the most important thing is you want to leave a better culture than the one you came into.”
Even with multiple players returning for their fifth year with the program, over half of the roster will consist of underclassmen for the second straight season. Wright said playing the top teams – USC, Stanford and California – multiple times last season gave his players invaluable experience.
“I like the foundation that we have in place,” Wright said. “Last year was huge from an experience standpoint for a lot of young guys on our team. … I like where our group is as far as the culture and how they want to go about working and how they’re really inclusive and accepting of whatever role they have. It’s a really special thing to have in team sports.”
Whereas last season some players were away from a pool for months because of the pandemic, this season UCLA had a unique opportunity to train in the summer. Competing in the Men’s Senior National tournament in Northern California from Aug. 6 to Aug. 8 with the majority of the Bruins on the roster, the club placed third – the highest finish of any university.
“It was awesome,” Travisano said. “There’s a lot of the older guys, so that was super fun because a lot of them are past alumni from Stanford, Cal, USC and UCLA. It’s nice just to get some summer competition. Just getting more games together to learn how to work together better, especially with a new team this year, was super nice.”
Playing under the name LA Water Polo Club, UCLA defeated Stanford and Santa Barbara while splitting its two games against USC. The blue and gold also matched up against the tournament champion New York Athletic Club, losing 13-6.
“That was a great experience for us because those are high-level games,” Wright said. “Tournaments like that in the summer are great for us in a lot of ways. It’s a chance to evaluate where we’re at as a group, also evaluating the players individually and what will be best for them.”
Heading into the new season, UCLA was chosen to finish second in the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll earlier in August. Earning the number-one spot, USC will return six All-Americans and two Olympians. The Golden Bears – who defeated the Bruins three times last season – return Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Player of the Year Nikolaos Papanikolaou while Stanford became the first team in MPSF history to win three straight conference titles a season ago.
Despite the impending competition, Travisano said the Bruins are ready to pick up where they left off.
“We’re ready to go,” Travisano said. “We’re hungry now. None of us are content. We all want to keep progressing. We all want to get better. We’re just hungry to build off of where we ended last year.”
