UCLA Men's Water Polo Drops First Game of Season, Places 3rd at MPSF Invitational

The Bruins played three games against top-10 opponents over the weekend and lost one to the Golden Bears.

(Photo Courtesy of UCLA Athletics)

While the undefeated season is over, the Bruins still wound up on the winning end of a few tight matches against top teams.

No. 1 UCLA men's water polo (11-1) beat No. 8 Pacific (5-6) Saturday morning before dropping its first match of the fall season to No. 3 California (13-1) later that day in the MPSF Invitational semifinals. As a result, the Bruins played in the third-place game Sunday, where they managed to best No. 3 Stanford (12-2) and claim a spot on the podium.

Graduate attacker Nicolas Saveljic led the Bruins with nine goals over the weekend. Redshirt senior utility Felix Brozyna-Vilim scored five and senior attacker Jake Cavano scored four. The combined effort of that trio and their teammates resulted in 10 goals per game during the tournament, but the Bruins had been averaging 14.8 per game across their first nine contests heading into Friday.

The Bruins were in a hole early Saturday and very nearly lost their first game to the Tigers before even getting a chance to face off against the Golden Bears.

UCLA trailed 2-1 after one quarter, and even after a 3-1 second quarter gave them a halftime lead, Pacific went up 6-5 late in the third. Sophomore goalkeeper Garrett Griggs saved 15 shots across the match, but allowed three goals in the fourth quarter, meaning the offense had to come alive in order for the Bruins to pull one out.

Brozyna-Vilim notched a hat trick in the final quarter alone, while Saveljic capped off one of his own and UCLA scored five goals down the stretch to escape with the 11-9 victory.

UCLA had then won 13 matches in a row dating back to last spring's NCAA tournament, only to have that streak snapped hours later in a 10-9 loss to Cal.

The Bruins were scoring at a higher clip than they had against the Tigers, posting six goals in the opening half, but still trailed 8-6 at the break with Bernardo Maurizi starting in place of Griggs. The fresh face still saved over 50% of the shots tossed his way though, making his first appearance of the season.

Maurizi allowed just two goals in the second half, and the UCLA offense suddenly had a chance to stage a comeback. Facing a 10-6 deficit with less than five minutes to play, Cavano scored twice and Saveljic scored once to make it a one-goal game with 29 seconds left on the clock. Cal called a timeout with 9 seconds remaining and eventually ran out the clock, so the Bruins never got to make a play on goal and force overtime.

UCLA came out of the gates slow against Stanford with third place on the line, scoring three goals in the first half.

The Bruins never trailed, but never led by more than one through the first three quarter either. A 5-1 run to end the game, consisting of two Saveljic goals, helped them put it away and grab hold of third place in the weekend tournament.

USC won the MPSF Invitational later Sunday, beating Cal 12-11 in the finals.

After playing just one of its first 12 games at home, UCLA will play four of its next five at Spieker Aquatics Center. The string of home games starts Saturday at 1 p.m. against San Jose State.

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