When the Millikan Rams host a Wild Card CIF girls’ water polo match today at 3pm, they’ll be facing a familiar opponent: Fountain Valley, the at-large entrant from the Sunset League, a team that defeated the Rams 9-4 when they played in the first days of January.

“We outshot them 2-1 that day,” says Millikan coach Al Reyes, “but we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Reyes said his team also did  a poor job defending Fountain Valley’s top two scorers (who had seven of their team’s nine goals), and converting their man-ups.  “You go 1-8 on your man-ups and you let their best scorers go free like that, you’re not going to win a lot of water polo games,” Reyes says.

Not coincidentally, the Rams’ focus for the last six weeks has been converting man-up opportunities (they were 4-6 against Poly in a loss last week) and improving defense.  If that work pays off in the Millikan pool this afternoon, the Rams could earn their way into the CIF bracket, to visit Dos Pueblos on Wednesday, a short turnaround Reyes wouldn’t mind.  “Who wouldn’t want to earn a chance to go to Santa Barbara?” he asks.  “Hopefully we can have a better showing this time.”