UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Balanced Offense Helps Water Polo Team Rebound

When water polo teams play UC Irvine, they look at last season’s statistics and make a decision: Try to stop Steve Gill.

Gill scored 77 goals for Irvine, which was without its second-leading scorer, Pablo Yrizar, during the last part of what turned into 13-16 season. It is the only losing season in the program’s proud history.

But if teams decide to concentrate on Gill this season, they are asking for trouble. Double-team Gill, and you open up opportunities for the rest of the Anteaters.

Yrizar and Skylar Putman are two of the best one-on-one driving players around. And outside, Irvine has a newly confident long-range shooter in Marc Hunt, a sophomore who has already nearly tripled his scoring output of a year ago.

“Last year, the ball would go into Gill,” Hunt said. “This year, teams are defending us by dropping back and double-teaming Gill. It leaves the outside open.”

That leaves Irvine with a balanced offense. Gill and Yrizar each has 29 goals. Hunt, who had nine last season, has 24, and Putman 20.

With that offense, and a defense that Hunt says is much more diligent than last season’s, Irvine has a 14-2 record and is ranked third in the most recent poll.

The only teams that have beaten Irvine? No. 1 California, the defending NCAA champion, and No. 2 UCLA.

The Anteaters, the only unbeaten team in Big West Conference play, take their 4-0 record into a game against fifth-ranked Pepperdine at noon Saturday at Malibu. In September, Irvine defeated Pepperdine, 10-9, on a sudden-death overtime goal by Yrizar.

Hunt, who scores many of his goals from six to eight meters, says arm strength isn’t necessarily the most important factor. It’s more critical that wrist movement not give away where the shot is going, and that the shot be close enough to give teammates a chance at a rebound.

Hunt came to UC Irvine from Santa Maria, which isn’t exactly water polo heartland. Though he is talented, he wasn’t accustomed to playing with bigger, stronger and more experienced players.

But he is more comfortable this year after spending much of the off-season training and playing with the U.S. junior national team. He traveled to Cuba and Europe with the team, and would have played in the Junior World Water Polo Championships at Corona del Mar High School in September, but had to sit out after an infection contributed to a punctured eardrum.

After his arduous off-season, Hunt came back ready to play.

“I was playing a lot of high-caliber competition, and I came back and said, ‘Wow, the NCAA isn’t as hard as I thought.’

“I wasn’t as confident my freshman year. I’m not as intimidated by very big players any more.”

Still, in spite of the balanced offense, defense is probably the biggest improvement over last season.

“Our defense last year was really lax. We were lazy,” Hunt said. “Teams would score 10 or 11 goals on us, and to win we had to score 12 or 13.

“If you look at our record last year, it looked really bad, but a lot of those losses were by one and two goals. The only team that really blew us out was Stanford.”

A lot of things are different now.

“Everyone realized they didn’t want this year to be like last year,” Hunt said.

Rod Baker, preparing for his first season as coach, was pleased with some of what he saw in his first look at his team Tuesday, beginning with a Midnight Madness scrimmage that drew almost 1,000 spectators.

“I think we’re better than I thought,” Baker said. “I think we’re better than a lot of people think.”

Baker says it will take two to three weeks before he has strong opinions about his players’ abilities, but he was happy with what he saw from Uzoma Obiekea, a 6-foot-7, 245-pound native of Nigeria who transferred from U.S. International.

“Wasn’t it nice to see him rebound the ball and put it back in?” Baker said.

Irvine knew little about Obiekea, a junior who is eligible this season because USIU dropped basketball. He is expected to add bulk and rebounding power to a thin front line, and if Tuesday was an indication, is also capable of scoring.

UCI Notes

The women’s volleyball team, still stumbling through Big West play, has an 0-7 record after being swept last week in three games in two matches against powerhouse Hawaii. . . . The women’s soccer team (7-5-1) will match the school’s season victory record if it wins one more game. First chance is today at Azusa Pacific. The team has seven games left. . . . Justin Ross, a 6-foot-4 freshman guard from Laguna Hills High School, has walked on with the men’s basketball team. . . . The club lacrosse team is playing host to a fall invitational Saturday and Sunday at Crawford Field and invites the public to attend. The championship game is at 3:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. . . . The men’s cross-country team has broken into the national top 40 and is ranked 35th. The women’s team remains 18th.