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Friday, February 26, 1999

Bruins brace for coming competition

WATERPOLO: UCLA must face tough Pac-10 teams without top three players

By Steve Kim

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The women's water polo team wants to get things straight.

The three-peating national champions lost to their rivals early in the season to display a scarring 4-3 game record.

This shaky first impression left doubts of whether they're capable of winning the fourth national title, especially after missing three of their top players and head coach Guy Baker to the national team for this season.

But as senior co-captain Amanda Gall says, "The season just began."

"The whole team is very positive about the season," Gall said. "On paper it may look like we may not be as good this year and I'm sure people are thinking UCLA lost it this year by losing three players and head coach to the national team, but the games we lost against Stanford and USC were really close games."

Their reputation is at stake.

Because the Bruins tripped at the start, they're out to do some serious damage control.

Interim head coach Adam Krikorian remembers when Stanford beat UCLA at Palo Alto, they celebrated like they won the NCAA championship.

"Everyone's marked our game on their calendar," Krikorian said. "Teams are coming in with extra confidence. But we'll see in the end.

"The biggest things with this team is comparing themselves with the past three years," he added. "They're facing a lot of outside pressure and there's a lot of players who are getting added experience by filling in the spotlight. But we should still contend for the title this year."

The Bruins face the same rivals at the UC Santa Barbara tournament this weekend. Low scoring games in the past several matches indicate good defense. In order to better their chances of winning against the tough teams this weekend, they need to increase their offense.

The competition, Bruins admit, is much tougher this year but nothing to fear.

"In the past we've been the dominant team," Gall said. "But this year there's going to be a lot of competition between USC, Stanford, Cal and us, and the teams behind aren't that far away. So it'll be a little bit more exciting for everyone. I'm looking forward to the competition."

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