No. 1 UCLA (22-1, 5-1 MPSF) begins its postseason campaign with the MPSF Championship at Avery Aquatic Center in Stanford, California. The Bruins have been the MPSF’s best regular-season team for three consecutive years but failed to win the tournament title after falling to No. 2 USC by two points in last season’s championship match. Nonetheless, the Bruins remain this year’s tournament favorites and are the reigning national champions with a roster that boasts seven All-MPSF players and five-time MPSF Coach of the Year Adam Wright at the helm. The Daily Bruin Sports’ men’s water polo beat predicts how UCLA will fare in its upcoming MPSF Tournament.
Jacob Nguyen
Assistant Sports editor
Prediction: MPSF champions
History is not on UCLA’s side.
Despite winning the MPSF regular season title for the last three seasons, the Bruins have fallen short in the actual tournament each time.
But I’d be remiss to say that was just because they took their feet off the gas. Coach Adam Wright is far from the type of guy to let his players waver for even a second, no matter the circumstances – just look at his passion by the pool even in the waning minutes of a blowout victory.
And that kind of vigor should carry a Westwood squad that is somehow growing from last season’s national championship run.
The Bruins boast seven All-MPSF players including reigning back-to-back MPSF Player of the Year Ryder Dodd. The sophomore attacker finished the regular season with 82 goals on a .573 shot percentage. Dodd scoring just one goal in any given match is a bigger shock than if he were to flaunt a hat trick.
But it isn’t just Dodd that makes UCLA dangerous – it’s the squad’s depth.
Eight Bruins finished the year with 20-plus goals, and each of them can make a big play such as redshirt junior attacker Frederico Jucá Carsalade’s game-winning penalty shot in the double overtime victory against No. 3 Stanford on Nov. 1.
And it’s that selflessness and camaraderie that should propel the team forward.
Pair that with the resilience of a squad that learns from its mistakes, UCLA followed up its singular loss, where it recorded just one field block with a season-best two goals allowed to Pacific – and you have a team that is gunning for the MPSF title.
Kai Dizon
Daily Bruin senior staff
Prediction: Lose to USC at some point
Conference championships are for suckers.
Especially if it’s the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Especially if you’re the Bruins.
As UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin would put it, “Do you think they’re gonna hang a banner if we win the Big Ten Tournament? You don’t win the national championship around here, they don’t hang the banner out there.”
UCLA hasn’t won the MPSF crown since 2021, and it doesn’t need to.
The MPSF tournament is just a practice run for the NCAA tournament – and not just because one precedes the other.
The MPSF West is just four teams strong – UCLA, No. 2 USC, Stanford and No. 4 California, but I can all but guarantee the NCAA title game will include two of those four.
A program besides the Bruins, Trojans, Cardinal and Golden Bears hasn’t appeared in the national championship since 2019.
A program besides those four hasn’t won the title since Pepperdine in 1997.
And one of the four has appeared in every championship match since the NCAA started hosting one in 1969.
I’m not saying Wright is going to tell his team to take it easy. I’m not saying Dodd is going to tell himself to swim slower, take fewer shots and leave his man wide open.
But why show your opponents all your cards when you’re likely to face them in fewer than two weeks for your sport’s biggest crown? I mean, save your chips for when the betting gets big, right?
The Bruins aren’t going to win the MPSF title, but no one would remember it even if they did.
The real playoffs start Dec. 5.
Ava Abrishamchian
Daily Bruin contributor
Prediction: MPSF champions
What goes up must come down.
But for the Bruins, it is not time yet.
UCLA enters the MPSF tournament as a clear favorite, carrying dominant momentum from three very different but telling wins.
The Bruins started the month overpowering Cal behind a season-high seven goals from Dodd, shut out No. 6 Pacific for three straight quarters and proved their toughness by rallying past USC on the road with nine different scorers.
Even with Dodd in peak form with 16 goals across the last three games, the offense is not simply relying on one shoulder.
Sophomore utility Bode Brinkema, Carsalade, junior utility Ben Liechty and senior utility Gray Carson have given the Bruins a reliable scoring rotation. Add in redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Nate Tauscher’s stretch of the season – 21 saves scores in the Pacific and USC games – the Bruins look fully balanced on both ends of the pool.
The Bruins faced a lone stumble in October when a narrow 13-12 loss to USC underscored UCLA’s strength rather than exposed a weakness. Able to build off of early leads from goals by Brinkema and freshman attacker Jackson Harlan, the Bruins had momentum to battle back in the second half. Despite the Trojans taking a late-period momentum swing, UCLA clawed back to tie the game on Dodd’s fourth goal with just a minute left. While the Trojans ultimately took the game, the Bruins showed a foundational versatility that has carried them since.
With Dodd leading offensively, Tauscher anchoring the back line and a deep bench, UCLA should be entering the tournament with momentum. On their journey up, they are well-positioned to claim the 2025 MPSF tournament crown.
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