Make
or break games upcoming for water polo
Rick
Azevedo
By
Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
After
five years as men's water polo head coach,
Rick Azevedo has had good teams, probably
even great teams, but has been unable to
get over the hump of great competition in
the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
"The
first few years [I was at Long Beach State],
I thought we would have to play our best
game to beat the top four," Azevedo
said.
He
now believes his team can beat the top teams
like USC, UC Berkeley and UCLA without an
extraordinary performance.
His team will get its chance this weekend
playing No. 5 Pepperdine Saturday and No.
4 UCLA Sunday.
While
the team has been able to beat the top teams,
beating UCLA two of the past three meetings,
it has not been able to finish first in
either the MPSF standings or the national
rankings.
Azevedo
believes his No. 7 ranked team may have
its best chance in decades to be the best.
"We
are, kind of, now on the same level as those
teams but we are still not as consistent,"
Azevedo said. "We have what it takes
[to win] and now we have to execute."
The
49ers are currently fifth in the MPSF and
the four teams ahead of The Beach are the
top four teams in the nation. With wins
in its final three games and a little luck
from the teams ahead of the 49ers in the
federation, the team could find itself in
a position to compete for a national championship.
Azevedo
is realistic about the team's chances. The
49ers must either win the MPSF Championships
or finish as one of the top two teams in
the nation to even compete for the national
championship. Right now the coach is working
on how the team finishes games against the
top ranked teams.
Azevedo
said the team must have the confidence that
it can beat the best in order to be the
best. To improve self confidence he is telling
the team about the history of great players
and great teams that played for The Beach
as well as assure them that they are moving
in the right direction. One technique is
when watching films Azevedo is showing the
players the good things they are doing while
only highlighting the bad things.
The
49ers play Pepperdine at noon. Saturday
in Malibu and at home in the Campus Pool
versus UCLA at noon Sunday.
"We
are, kind of, now on the same level as those
teams but we are still not as consistent.
We have what it takes [to win] and now we
have to execute."
Rick Azevedo,
Head Coach
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