Men’s Water polo: UCLA Beats Cal in Overtime

PASADENA, CA., Oct. 20. IT wasn't a laugher like the Bruins' football team's 56-17 win over Cal, but UCLA's men's water polo team — after blowing an early 4-1 lead — came back to defeat Cal, 8-6, in double-
overtime this afternoon in the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center pool.

No. 2-ranked UCLA is 9-2 overall, and 4-0 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play. A trip to Palo Alto to face the top-ranked Cardinal Saturday, OCt. 27 is next on the Bruin agenda. That match will precede the Bruin-Cardinal football game, and will be held in Stanford's new Avery Aquatics Complex, site of this year's NCAA Championships, Dec. 1-2.

No. 5-ranked Cal is now 8-3 and 2-2 in MPSF play.

Freshman driver Brett Ormsby, one of the Bruin mainstays all season long and the team's leading scorer, rifled home the game-winning goal three minutes into overtime to lead his team to victory.
The score was Ormsby's solo tally of the game but it proved to be decisive.

UCLA senior two-meter man Alfonso Tucay was the Bruins' "big gun," scoring four times to take high-point honors. Three of his goals came in the match's initial eight minutes and gave the Bruins a 4-1 lead. And Cal's leading scorer, driver Attila Banhidy, was whistled for a pair of ejections in the opening quarter and then held in check for the balance of the game.

UCLA led 5-3 midway through the fourth quarter but then Cal scored thrice to the home team's single goal and the teams were tied at the end of regulation, 6-6.

However, UCLA might have won without going into overtime had goalie Brandon Brooks not been ejected with less than a half-minute remaining. As it was,
UCLA, without a goalkeeper to defend the cage, was no match for the Golden Bears' Spencer Dornin, who blasted home the game-tier with seven seconds left.

Late in the first overtime Cal driver Joe Kaiser was kicked out, and Orsmby then beat Cal goalkeeper Tim Kates to the near post just before the buzzer. UCLA's Matt Flesher added an insurance goal in the second extra period, and the home team's defense thwarted all seven of Cal's possessions in overtime.

Bruins coach Adam Krikorian, who guided UCLA to the NCAA title last season and was an assistant on the title-winning team in 1999, said he was "impressed with the team's fast start and with Tucay's play in particular.

"When we were patient on offense and dumped the ball down to two meters, good things happened."

Goalie Brooks registered eight saves before exiting, including a penalty shot by Banhidy in the game's opening minute. UCLA's defense was very effective, recording 16 steals, including four each by Flesher and Brooks.

— Bill Bell

SCORING SUMMARY

California 1 1 1 3 0 0 – 6

UCLA 3 1 1 1 1 1 – 8

Cal: Spencer Dornin 2 (1 pen), Greg Panawek, Todd Hylton, Attila Banhidy,
Andrew Stoddard.

UCLA: Alfonso Tucay, 4; Matt Flesher, 2; Albert Garcia, Brett Ormsby

GOALKEEPERS:

Cal: Russell Bernstein (4 GA, 3 saves); Tim Kates (4 GA, 10 saves).

UCLA: Brandon Brooks (6 GA, 8 saves).

EXTRA-MAN:

Cal: 3 of 5

UCLA: 3 of 4

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