San Jose State, Navy No Match for UCLA Men's Water Polo in Return to Westwood

The Bruins beat up on a couple of lower-ranked squads in their first home matches in nearly a month.

(Photo Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)

Coming off their first loss in months, the Bruins settled in and coasted to two victories Saturday.

No. 3 UCLA men's water polo (13-1) hosted No. 9 San Jose State (8-10) and Navy (6-10) over the weekend, beating both to get back on track following their third-place finish at the MPSF Invitational the week prior. The Bruins scored 18 and 13 goals in the two matches after their offense had stagnated in recent weeks, not putting up more than 12 in their previous five contests.

The two matches also marked the first home games for UCLA since Sept. 10, with the Bruins playing 11 of their first 12 outings on the road or at neutral sites.

In front of their first home crowd in nearly a month, UCLA came out of the gates strong against San Jose State.

After going up 3-1 in the first and outscoring the Spartans 4-2 in the second, the Bruins went into halftime with a comfortable 7-3 lead. That gap only grew, with UCLA going up 13-5 after three and many different players joining in on the goal-scoring fun.

Nine different Bruins scored and seven scored multiple goals. Freshman attacker Chase Dodd and junior attacker Tommy Gruwell led the way, each putting up a hat trick.

That 6-2 third quarter epitomized the spread out scoring attack, as five different players scored in the eight-minute period.

Dodd capped off his hat trick in the fourth quarter, lifting UCLA to an eventual 18-8 victory.

Freshman center Eli Liechty and sophomore attacker Tanner Pulice were the two players who scored just one goal against the Spartans, but then they came back and co-led the Bruins in scoring later that day in match No. 2 of the weekend.

Liechty and Pulice scored two goals apiece, tied for the most on the team with sophomore attacker Hayden Nightingale, in UCLA's win over Navy.

Pulice scored twice in the opening quarter, and once Dodd chipped in with a goal of his own in the final seconds, the Bruins entered the second already up 5-1. Graduate attacker Nicolas Saveljic scored his only goal of the weekend in the second quarter against the Midshipmen as his team entered halftime up 10-3.

The second half wasn't as prolific of an offensive period for UCLA, but it still put things away and won 13-5.

Sophomore Garrett Griggs made five saves in the first half before passing the torch to redshirt sophomore Chase Honaker, who made four saves in the second half. Junior Bernardo Maurizi earned the start in goal in the game against San Jose State, recording eight saves while going the distance.

Saveljic, despite not putting up the scoring numbers he did at the MPSF Invitational or throughout the course of the 2020 spring season, still led the Bruins in steals across the two games with five.

UCLA will stick at home for its next contest, a rematch of the MPSF Invitational third-place game with No. 4 Stanford, who the Bruins beat 10-6 on Sept. 26. The match will start at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon at the Spieker Aquatics Center.

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