PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Dan Yeilding fields the ball with authority during a match against Princeton earlier this month.
By Rekha Rao
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 3 UCLA men’s water polo team will try to defend their championship this weekend, when they take on UC Santa Barbara on Friday and Pepperdine on Sunday afternoon.
“This is a huge weekend for us,” said sophomore attacker and two-meter defender Matt Flesher.
On Friday afternoon, the Bruins play at Santa Barbara for their second conference game of the season.
“These two games count for our conference record,” said head coach Adam Krikorian. “We play each team in the conference once every season and these games determine how we do in the conference tournament at the end of the year.”
This weekend will be a key one in terms of conference placement.
“We will have three conference games out of seven out of our way after this weekend,” Flesher said.
The Bruins are confident going into their opener on the first important weekend of the season.
“They (Santa Barbara) are redshirting some of their better players this year, so they are not as strong as they usually are,” Krikorian said. “As long as we are playing the way we are capable of playing, we should come away with victory.”
The team is greatly anticipating the game on Sunday against No. 8 Pepperdine.
“This is probably the biggest game of the year for us,” Krikorian said. “They redshirted probably three of their best players preparing for this year. They only have one loss against them this year.”
The Bruins will need to play at the top of their game to finish this weekend ahead of the other teams.
“We are trying to go 3-0 in the conference heading into next week,” Krikorian said. “We will definitely need to bring in our ‘A’ game in order to beat these guys.”
Junior playmaker Jeff Pflueger added, “Experience is key. These aren’t just teams that you walk by and look past, because every team has potential to get you on your bad days.”
Last week, UCLA beat No. 9 University of the Pacific 12-1, and used that win to restore its confidence after losing the season opener to UC Irvine.
“Our confidence is back after our losses in the beginning of the season,” Pflueger said. “We are realizing that anything can happen.”
“I feel really confident about our team right now,” Krikorian added. “Whenever you go into the season ranked No. 1 and drop the first games, you worry about how the team will respond. This team has responded well to that.”
The Bruins expect to achieve their anticipated victories by maintaining their level of play throughout the weekend.
“We just have been getting better every game because of good practices and we have been getting used to playing with each other again,” Flesher said.
This weekend’s play is key for another reason – to maintain momentum throughout the season.
“It’s important for us to play our game and get the Ws, especially when the end of the season comes up,” Pflueger said.