One Game Away From 100

by Menelaus on May 13, 2007 6:51 AM PDT in Other Sports

The lady Bruins made it six in a row against USC yesterday to advance to the NCAA championship game against Stanford today. Per the LA Times:

The UCLA women's team defeated USC for the sixth consecutive time, and fourth time this season, 7-6, Saturday night in the semifinals of the NCAA championships at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos.

The second-seeded Bruins (27-2) will play top-seeded Stanford (27-2) today at 5:30 p.m. in the championship match. The Cardinal advanced by beating San Diego State, 13-4.

If UCLA wins, it would be the school's 100th NCAA team title. UCLA would be the first school to accomplish that feat.

As in last year's NCAA tournament match between the Trojans and Bruins, Courtney Mathewson scored the winning goal late in the fourth quarter.

Mathewson scored with just over a minute left in the game to give the Bruins a 7-6 lead. Kelly Rulon stole the ball on USC's final possession to secure the win.

UCLA is now 32-12 all-time against USC, which dropped to 21-6 and will play San Diego State for third place at 3:30.

Courtney Mathewson; Photo by Jennifer Drader

Here's the official recap, as well as some notes from the campus rag. If you'd like to dial into the game, try
here, or head out to Los Alamitos. For the uninitiated, once you figure out all the whistles, I think you'll find water polo to be one hell of a sport.

Anyway, whatever happens, it's been a tremendous season for these ladies. Hopefully they can keep it rolling against an extremely talented Stanford squad.

GO BRUINS.

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Wow

Man this is going to be intesne.

I hope all of you guys who live close by Los Alamitos show up and support our ladies. This will be amazing if they pull they off.

Congrats once again to our ladies!

by Nestor on May 13, 2007 9:01 AM PDT reply actions

I wish they could play Southern Cal every day

Beating those assholes never gets old.

These ladies sure seem to enjoy it.

Go get #100!

by Ajax on May 13, 2007 9:09 AM PDT reply actions

A player's lament

I agree it's a hell of a game, and it's really too bad there's no way to play a pickup game like some of the more accessible sports. I'd have loved to play in college (not for the team, just for fun), but it's rare that you'll find strong enough swimmers, let alone those that can handle the underwater wrestling match portion of the game.

I think this is the best chance we've had this year to bring home #100. I have led the Adam Krikorian bandwagon here for a while. Given what he's accomplished in this short amount of time, I could easily see him making a name for himself as one of the UCLA greats. The question is, will he stick around (fortunately for us, there isn't a "next level", except the Olympics maybe, and that doesn't require you to quit your current job).

by Tydides on May 13, 2007 12:43 PM PDT reply actions

I hear that

I would have loved to play more after I hung up my cap on a competitive basis, but aside from a few alumni games here and there, it's, as you've described, hard to find a game. Now I'm just relegated to showing an occasional fellow vacationer a mean skip shot out by the pool. Oh well. Great game, though. Really great game.

And you're right, Krikorian really has a chance to build up some gaudy numbers. I'm cautiously optimistic. We'll see how the latest chapter goes in a few minutes. Hopefully, next week will be the official 100 week.

by Menelaus on May 13, 2007 5:27 PM PDT up reply actions