Ranked Trio Stands No Match for UCLA Men's Water Polo, Bruins Sweep Again

Top-ranked UCLA strung together three wins on the weekend to improve to 7-0.

(Photo Courtesy of Ross Turteltaub/UCLA Athletics)

The Bruins kept their foot on the gas and finished week two unblemished yet again.

No. 1 UCLA men's water polo (7-0) beat No. 13 UC Irvine (3-1) in its home opener Friday night before heading east to Claremont to beat No. 8 UC San Diego (5-2) and No. 19 Pomona-Pitzer (3-2) at the Inland Empire Classic on Saturday. The three wins extended the Bruins' season-opening winning streak to seven, marking their best start to a campaign since 2018.

UCLA averaged 17 goals per game on the weekend after putting up 15.3 per game in its four games last weekend. Both of those figures tower over the 10.7 goals the Bruins averaged in their spring 2021 NCAA championship season.

All of that production came without Cutino Award winner Nicolas Saveljic, who has still yet to play this season. 

The weekend didn't start off in dominant fashion, however, with UC Irvine taking an early 1-0 lead Friday at Spieker Aquatics Center. The Anteaters held the Bruins to three goals in the first half, and coach Adam Wright's squad was only up by one at the break.

Second half goals by senior attacker Jake Cavano, redshirt senior utility Felix Brozyna-Vilim, redshirt sophomore utility Giorgio Alessandria and sophomore utility Guillermo Ocasio helped make it a 9-5 contest heading into the fourth, where UCLA put things away and won 12-6.

The Bruins doubled up the Anteaters despite putting up virtually the same number of shots, part of which can be attributed to sophomore goalkeeper Garret Griggs' game-high 12 saves.

Griggs was at it against Saturday morning, racking up 11 saves in UCLA's 15-8 victory over UC San Diego. Once again, the Bruins led by just one goal at halftime – this time sitting at 8-7 after two quarters – and this time around, they were only up by two heading into the final frame.

A 4-0 run to open the fourth helped UCLA take command of the match and win game one of the Inland Empire Classic.

UCLA's third and final outing of the weekend provided a cleaner path to victory, as the Bruins took a quick 4-0 lead and went into halftime up 12-4 over Pomona-Pitzer, eventually besting the Sagehens 24-7. 14 separate players scored for the Bruins.

Jack Larsen led the team in scoring on the weekend with seven goals, posting a career-high four against UC San Diego and another hat trick versus Pomona-Pitzer. Sophomore attacked Tanner Pulice scored five and Cavano scored four.

UCLA will hit the road again next weekend, playing Long Beach State on Friday and Santa Barbara on Saturday in its first true road games of the season.

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