UCLA Women's Club Water Polo returned from spring break ready to prove themselves after a challenging performance at their opening season tournament. The Bruins' second official season tournament, hosted April 2nd and 3rd at USC's Uytengsu Aquatics Center, welcomed an impressive array of water polo players from USC, UCLA, UCI, Cal Poly SLO, and UCSB.
After the disappointing seven losses in San Luis Obispo, Bruin fans held their breaths in anticipation on Saturday, April 2nd, as the UCLA A team played their first game against UCI. In an outstanding performance, UCLA A team demonstrated superb athletic ability and strong communication skills within the pool. Under the leadership of Coach McCarthy, the Bruins secured a 16-2 win against UCI's Anteaters, leading the Bruins confidently into the tournament.
Later that day we saw UCLA A up against UCSB A, a formidable team based on their performance last tournament. However, despite Santa Barabara's best efforts, UCLA A maintained their winning streak with a 6-5 win, after a tenuous four quarters.
In contrast to the A team, we saw UCLA B struggling to get their footing at the beginning of this tournament, ending the day with a 4-10 loss against UCI and 1-12 loss against Cal Poly A. Regardless, these Bruins didn't show any sign of giving up and returned on Sunday reinvigorated. Starting the day's games, UCLA B played Cal Poly B and showed some significant improvement in their passing and shooting compared to the previous day. Although they ended the game with a 2-7 loss, this game was a testament to this team's efforts in the past month. After having lost to this same team 2-12 at the opening season tournament, these Bruins cut Cal Poly's goals in half and refused to yield another inch. Following shortly after, UCLA A competed against Cal Poly A, with both teams grappling for victory. Equally matched this day, the teams ended with a 6-6 tie. Finally, ending the tournament with this final match-up, UCLA A had Bruin fans up on their feet cheering, with their 11-1 win against UCSB B.
With Regionals being hosted this weekend at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center, UCLA's teams will have one final chance to show off their skills in this 2022 season.
