Bruins suffer third straight loss to Trojans
Monday, November 25, 1996
WATER POLO:
USC gets early advantage; UCLA never able to catch upBy Greg Calvert
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Rose Bowl parking lot experienced heavy congestion in the early morning of Saturday's huge gameday. Even water polo fans couldn't "beat the traffic" to see the 10 a.m. UCLA-USC game at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, as tailgaters for the UCLA-USC football game started arriving by the thousands at daybreak.
This match was expected to be point-for-point, but the Trojans came out of the gates on fire. The UCLA men's water polo team allowed top-ranked USC to celebrate its 12-10 victory over the third-ranked Bruins. This loss marks the third straight defeat that the Trojans have handed UCLA this season.
Trojan driver Dan Cherrie vocalized his fire as he awaited the opening whistle, "Lets take 'em out now!" Much to the dismay of Bruin fans, the Trojans did exactly that.
Hrvoje Cizmic's two-point field goal was netted seconds after USC controlled the opening sprint. With the assistance of Simun Cimerman's field goal minutes later, USC jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter and the Bruins never caught up. Although the Bruins showed signs of fire during the next three quarters of play, USC still came out on top.
The opening quarter's disaster seemed to hang over UCLA, but the large Bruin crowd that came in support of their defending national champions kept their hopes high.
Bruins such as Jeremy Braxton-Brown, James Palda and Jim Toring fought back and outscored the Trojans in each of the next three quarters, and Bruin fans believed their team could pull out a comeback. Unfortunately for UCLA, USC netted the fourth quarter's first two goals to extend their lead to a comfortable five points, and the match was essentially over.
"We came prepared and ready to play," said Bruin driver Eric Helfer. "We had momentum scoring four unanswered goals (in the second quarter), but we couldn't overcome the point deficit."
The Bruins did not seem discouraged about their play and are optimistic about the upcoming MPSF tournament. "We'll make a few adjustments early this week, and then we head up north on Wednesday," Helfer said.
USC enters the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference tournament this weekend in Berkeley as the No. 2 seed with a 7-1 MPSF record (19-2 overall). The Bruins (21-4, 6-2 MPSF) head to California's Speiker Aquatics Complex as the No. 3 seed, and are slotted for a probable rematch with their crosstown rival. Stanford and Cal (No. 1 and No. 4 seeds, respectively) are lined up for battle if they win their opening games of the eight-team tournament.
The Bruins are now in a must-win situation going into the MPSF tournament that starts Friday. If UCLA can take the conference title, they will head to San Diego for the NCAA four-team championship tournament.
Although there is a slim, outside chance that the defending champs will be invited to the NCAA's without the MPSF title, the Bruins are not willing to put their destiny in hands of their opponents. "We play our best under pressure, and we've got a lot of experience that will help us through the tournament," Helfer added.
In a conference dripping with talent, the pressure will be on  and if you plan to attend the Bay Area tournament over the holiday weekend, you better leave Tuesday to "beat the traffic."
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