By Jamie Neushul on February 11, 2015

Eighty-nine days. That’s how long we have until we compete for a national championship in our home pool. It has been 20 days since I last posted to this blog. And we’ve been hard at work for every single one of them.

We are continuing in our “tournament tough” part of the season, finishing on top at our tournament, the Stanford Invitational. It was a great challenge and a lot of fun for us to play against many of the top-ranked teams in the nation, especially at home. We defeated UCLA, an opponent with whom we are extremely familiar, 10-6 in the final game.

It is never an easy game when we play UCLA. We have met so many times in the past, making for an extremely competitive atmosphere. The Bruins are a well-coached, creative and hungry opponent, and they did not fall short in any of these categories this past weekend.

The game set up like any championship atmosphere: exciting, thrilling and awesome. To see people in the crowd, to play against people other than our own teammates and to represent the Stanford Cardinal is what we work for every day in practice.

We started off strong and managed to stay ahead, controlling the pace of the game — for the most part. We had a commanding three-goal lead going into halftime that quickly turned into a one-goal lead in the third quarter. We were able to finish strong and put in numerous goals in the fourth quarter, but UCLA definitely put up a long and hard fight. Only a team that is willing to put pressure on for the entire game, characteristic of the Bruins, can cause such a big and quick defensive lapse. Due to a great, sustained effort, we were able to escape with a win. Junior Anna Yelizarova and senior Ashley Grossman were outstanding on offense, putting up impressive shots and efforts to make this win possible.

The best and most exciting factor we took away from the weekend was discovering that we still have lots to work on — and being reminded that there is always room for improvement. UCLA, among many other teams, exposed our weaknesses, and since then, we have been working hard to get better.

Our top priority at Stanford is and always will be defense. A team that does not give up goals cannot lose. Offense is obviously important and something every team must focus on, but offense begins with defense. Offense is a reward for playing great defense. Offense is creativity; defense is discipline. Defense separates the talented from the determined. It is defined and controlled by those willing to make the extra effort. In regards to water polo, we pride ourselves in being a team that gets more excited about being down a player (5 on 6) than up a player (6 on 5). We pride ourselves in getting shot-blocks and great steals, knowing that scoring goals will happen somewhere along the way — and keeping in mind that we only need one goal to win if we give up zero.

Defense is what we are stressing as we go forward. This weekend, we are traveling to Fresno Pacific for a double-header against Fresno and San Diego State. We are excited to play more teams who are also excited to play us. Looking further ahead, we will be back in the pool at the Irvine Tournament with UCLA as well as all of the other top-ranked teams in the NCAA. I can’t wait to see what we do with the next couple weeks and to watch our team grow closer and stronger.

Go Stanford!

Contact Jamie Neushul at jneushul ‘at’ stanford.edu.