Under ordinary circumstances, a team that has already clinched the top seed in its conference tournament could see the final game of the regular season as a formality.
The Bruins could ease off the gas and even rest some starters.
But these are not ordinary circumstances, coach Adam Wright said.
“We can’t ever be satisfied,” Wright said. “We have an opportunity to get better. It’s going to be a different game, they’re (the Trojans) a really good team, and we want that.”
If No. 1 UCLA men’s water polo (22-0, 6-0 MPSF) can defeat its crosstown rival, No. 3 USC (12-5, 1-4), on Saturday at Uytengsu Aquatics Center, the Bruins will complete their first undefeated regular season since 2015.
The two teams last played Oct. 14 – a blowout win in which UCLA scored 11 goals and held USC to just two – the largest margin of victory between the programs in 47 years. However, senior attacker Makoto Kenney said the Bruins know better than to anticipate another cakewalk.
“We’re expecting a completely different game this time,” Kenney said. “So we’re just going to prepare for them like we always do.”
Saturday marks exactly one year since UCLA’s nail-biting 14-13 overtime victory over USC that closed out the 2022 regular season.
Evidently, it was the Trojans who would go on to close out the Bruins’ playoff runs that year, defeating them in both the MPSF and NCAA tournaments.
Since dropping its contest to UCLA a month ago, USC has bounced back with two consecutive victories, its most recent being a 10-6 win over then-No. 3 Stanford on Saturday.
Nevertheless, senior goalkeeper Garret Griggs said he won’t be intimidated by whoever’s next on their schedule.
“If we just keep our focus on ourselves and just keep playing the way we’ve been playing, I think we’ll be alright,” Griggs said.
Despite UCLA’s recent victories over No. 2 California and No. 5 UC Irvine, Wright introduced more intensive practices to prepare for the postseason.
Griggs said recent training sessions have helped the team get ready for what’s ahead.
“It just feels normal to be going 110%,” Griggs said. “Just in practices, it’s really competitive, and it really helps us out.”
While the Bruins beat the Anteaters 13-8 in their Nov. 3 contest, UCLA was without its leading scorer, senior attacker Rafael Real Vergara.
Real Vergara was in Chile competing at the Pan American Games with the Brazilian national team, where he scored a goal in the championship game and earned a silver medal. The Long Beach State transfer, who scored a season-high seven goals in UCLA’s 14-10 win over USC on Sept. 23, is expected to be back Saturday, Wright said.
The Bruins and Trojans will get underway at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Saturday at 1 p.m.
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