Men's Water Polo Q&A: Cristian Bridley
11/17/2016 10:10:00 AM | Men's Water Polo, Competing With Purpose Blog
Senior Cristian Bridley and the Pepperdine men's water polo team are preparing for this weekend's inaugural Golden Coast Conference Tournament. Bridley tells us about his experience as a Wave and the team's goals for this weekend:
Q: Your regular season is now over, and your team is preparing to go to the GCC Championships. How do you feel the regular season went?
A: I think it went pretty well. We really needed to come together as a team, and I think that the regular season helped us do just that. It helped us find ourselves.
Q: As a senior, how has your leadership role changed throughout your years here?
A: As you get older, you have new guys that come in and look up to you, so you definitely want to set a good example. But you also still want to show them how to have fun during practices and games. A big thing is making sure that they know that even though we all want to win, you need to have fun. In order to win, we need to have fun and come together as a team.
Q: What have the teams of seniors before you taught you about that kind of leadership?
A: They taught me to always try to have a positive attitude and outlook on everything.You are going to win and you are going to lose, but it is always about the process. They also made sure that we always took what we learned into the postseason and bringing it all to the most important three or four games of the season.
Q: As you reflect on your time at Pepperdine, what do you think has been the most important lesson you have learned from either the coaches or your teammates?
A: I'd say that the most important lesson has been "Finish everything that you start." For me, I stopped playing for a while, but ended up coming back to the team, so that was the biggest lesson that I learned. I want to be able to finish the things I start. I want to see everything through, and be in the best mindset for everything that I come across.
Q: You mentioned that you left the team, and then came back. What made you want to come back after your hiatus?
A: The camaraderie is probably the biggest reason that I came back. I love all of the guys on the team, and that friendship and family attitude was something that I felt that I was missing out on. And, water polo as a sport is something I love. I missed playing the sport because I love to compete, and I love to win. Combining those two elements, it felt as though there was a pretty substantial void in my life.
Q: As you prepare for the conference tournament, what, if anything, has changed in practices?
A: During practices, we are focusing a lot on specific plays, and our defense. We really know how to play as a team, but it is just putting it all together. We want to get the specifics down and bring something that the teams haven't already seen. We play all of these teams during the regular season, so they know how we play, and we know how they play, so we want to bring something that will surprise them a little bit.
Q: This is your first year in the GCC. What was the competition like compared to the MPSF?
A: The competition is mainly the same except for the big four teams: Stanford, UCLA, USC and Cal. I think that we have a very good chance of winning this conference because all of the teams are right within each other's skill level.
Q: What can we expect from the Waves at the conference tournament?
A: I hope that we play well and come together well as a team. We have looked really good as a team these past few games, and I think that we have a good chance to bring it home.
