UCLA Women’s Water Polo Looks to Stay Undefeated as They Head North

The UCLA women’s water polo team is up in Northern California this weekend playing in the Cal Cup at UC Berkeley. The Bruins will play one game and one exhibition today as well as tomorrow. Today’s opponents are UC Davis at 8:30 am PT and Stanford in today’s exhibition at 1:00 pm PT.

Last Time Out

Last weekend, the Bruins were in Santa Barbara for the UCSB Winter Invitational. After winning both of their games on Saturday, UCLA played two more games on Sunday. In the first game, the Bruins defeated #9 Michigan, 9-7. Val Ayala picked up another hat trick in this game. It was her third in four games so far this season.

Rachel Whitelegge scored UCLA’s only goal of the first quarter. Meanwhile, the Wolverines scored twice and led 2-1 after one. Freshman Ava Johnson scored UCLA’s second goal of the game while Ayala picked up two of her three games in this quarter. Lizette Rozeboom made sure the Bruins had the lead at the half by adding UCLA’s fourth goal of the quarter. That gave the Bruins a 5-4 lead at the break.

Carlee Kapana shut the Wolverines down in the third quarter while Ayala and Bronte Halligan picked up power play goals and Roxy Wheaton added a full-strength goal to give UCLA an 8-4 lead heading into the final quarter. Wheaton’s goal would prove to be the game-winner.

While Michigan attempted to comeback, they were only able to score three times in the fourth. Rozeboom’s second goal of the game gave UCLA an insurance goal with 1:29 left and the Bruins came away with a 9-7 win.

In the second game on Sunday, the Bruins faced the host UCSB Gauchos. First quarter goals from Halligan and Wheaton gave UCLA a 2-0 lead. UCSB cut the lead to just one with the only goal of the second quarter and UCLA had a 2-1 lead at the break.

The Bruins’ only goal of the third quarter was scored by freshman Bella Wentzel while the Gauchos were able to score twice and it was 3-3 heading into the fourth quarter.

In the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, Emily Skelly sandwiched a pair of power play goals around the game-winning goal from Halligan as the Bruins went on a 3-0 run to start the quarter, but the UCLA defense held the Gauchos scoreless in the quarter until the final 21 seconds of the game when UCSB finally scored their one and only goal of the fourth quarter. That sent the Bruins home happy with a 6-4 win and kept UCLA undefeated so far this season.

UC Davis Aggies

The Aggies are currently ranked 9th overall and they enter this weekend with a 2-1 record. Their wins came over Fresno Pacific and Santa Clara while they lost last weekend to San Jose State.

Outlook

This morning’s game should be a relatively easy one. It will likely be over by halftime.

This is your UCLA women’s water polo Cal Cup Day 1 open thread.


Go Bruins!!