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Senior Logan Powell scored a career-high five goals in UCLA’s 15-4 victory over UC Irvine l

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The men’s water polo team wrapped up its non-conference schedule on a strong note last Friday night – fifteen strong notes, in fact.

In their last action before Mountain Pacific conference play begins this weekend, the Bruins routed UC Irvine, 15-4, at Anteater Pool in Irvine. Senior attacker Logan Powell led UCLA with a career-high five goals.

The Bruins dominated the Anteaters throughout the game, scoring four unanswered goals in the first quarter and leading 8-1 at the half. Coach Adam Krikorian credited the Bruins’ defensive play with frustrating UCI’s offense and keeping UCLA in control of the game.

“Overall, we were just very sharp,” Krikorian said. “We did a great job guarding their best players and having our guys in the right places to keep them from scoring. It all comes down to execution, and we did a good job of that.”

Four of Powell’s goals came in the first half, and he only missed one shot in the game. When asked about his career day, Powell acknowledged the play of the team as a whole.

“I just had a lot more opportunities this game than I’ve had the last couple of games,” Powell said. “(Coach Krikorian) gives me the green light to shoot and my shots just kept falling. Everything was just going well, for both me and the team.”

Krikorian expressed similar sentiments. Although he applauded Powell’s senior leadership, he does not believe Powell needs to dominate offensively for the Bruins to be successful.

“We have a number of different guys like Logan, all of whom are capable of scoring four or five goals in any given game,” he said. “So there’s no real pressure on him or anyone else to be our go-to player. This game, Logan was in the right places at the right times, and his shots were falling.”

Sophomore attacker Krsto Sbutega matched his season high with four goals for the Bruins. Justin Johnson and Kevin Kuga scored two goals apiece, while Grant Zider and Cameron Smith each scored one. Senior goalie Will Didinger made six saves, and UCLA improved to 4-0 in games in which Didinger has played.

The third-ranked Bruins open their MPSF schedule this Saturday against Stanford at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

Although Powell doesn’t anticipate a repeat of Friday night’s individual offensive performance, he does expect the same level of intensity from his team.

“We’re going to just play our game, keep the defense tight, and try and push the tempo as much as possible,” Powell said. “After that, it just comes down to executing in front of the cage.”