Bruins roar past Lions to victory in their first game of the MPSF tournament
Freshman attacker Michael Graner netted two goals and drew four exclusions in UCLA men’s water polo’s blowout over Penn State Behrend on Friday afternoon. (Ken Shin/Daily Bruin staff)
Men’s water polo
| No. 4 seed UCLA | 18 |
| No. 5 seed Penn State Behrend | 1 |
By Jack Perez
Nov. 16, 2018 6:08 p.m.
In their first postseason game of the season, the Bruins avoided an upset.
No. 4 seed UCLA men’s water polo (21-3, 1-2 MPSF) steamrolled No. 5 seed Penn State Behrend (4-18) 18-1 in the quarterfinal of the MPSF tournament.
The Bruins scored their first goal just 16 seconds into the game by sophomore utility Felix Brozyna-Vilim. UCLA tacked on six more before the quarter to take a 7-0 lead into the second.
UCLA continued to pile on in the second period. Six different Bruins scored in the second period, led by Brozyna-Vilim who scored his third and fourth goals of the game. The Bruins led 14-0 at halftime.
With a 14-goal lead before halftime, assistant coach Jack Grover said the team was tasked with implementing its game plan in the second half just like they did in the first.
“Our approach to every game is the same,” Grover said. “(Coach Adam Wright) reiterated that during halftime. He said it will be a big test for us because the precedent was set. Today is how we’re going to play the rest of the weekend.”
The Bruins’ attack slowed in the third period. Three Bruins scored to push UCLA’s lead to 17-0 before the final quarter.
Brozyna-Vilim added a fifth in the third quarter to set a new career high in goals. He said the selflessness of the Bruins around him allowed him to get in a good position to score.
“It was a testament to my teammates on the outside,” Brozyna-Vilim said. “Being able to move the ball. I was focusing on holding the side and getting ready for tomorrow.”
The Lions finally got on the scoreboard with 2:22 remaining in the game. Freshman goalie Danny Roland finished with six saves and one goal allowed over the final three quarters.
Freshman attacker Michael Graner scored twice for the Bruins. He said Wright told the team to treat the Lions the same as any other opponent and play with consistency.
“He basically said we’re playing ourselves,” Graner said. “We’ve got to stick to our game plan and keep to our routines. Every game is the same.”
The Bruins will face No. 1 seed Stanford (18-2, 2-1) in the first semifinal Saturday. The Cardinal and Bruins have met twice this season, with each team winning at home. The last time the two teams met at a neutral site was the 2014 Kap7 NorCal Invitational. The Bruins won that game 9-7.
Grover said the Bruins will look at more film from their past matchups with the Cardinal, but they have been preparing to face their Northern California rivals for a while.
“Nothing different,” Grover said. “We try not to look ahead, but we prepped for them pretty much all week knowing that’s who we’d likely match up with. At this point, all the work and the training has been put in.”
