Men's Water Polo Earns National Ranking

Posted: Oct 15, 2003

Oct. 15, 2003

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's water polo team earned the program's first national ranking of the season, as the Collegiate Water Polo Association listed the Broncos 17th in this week's poll. It marks the first ranking for the Bronco program since 1999, when the team was listed 20th.

"To break into the top 20 is a great achievement for our program," SCU head coach Keith Wilbur said. "The players on this team have been working extremely hard, and I'm glad that their accomplishments so far this season are being recognized.

"That being said," he continued, "our team needs to recognize we have a lot of important games still left in our season. We set goals for ourselves at the beginning of the season as to how we would like to finish in our conference, so there is still a lot of work ahead."

The team, currently 13-8 on the season and amid a five-match win streak, received 18 points in this week's poll. The complete poll can be found by Clicking Here.

Wilbur added that he hopes this ranking will aid in getting the Santa Clara water polo program more widely recognized.

"I hope that this accomplishment will help to get more high school water polo players to consider Santa Clara University as a place to play collegiate water polo," he said. "I have received a lot of feedback from proud Santa Clara water polo alums and supporters who are very excited with the direction the program is moving, and we want to get that word out to the rest of the water polo community."

Last weekend the Broncos went 4-0 at the Convergence Tournament in Claremont, including a double overtime victory against No. 15 BYU-Hawaii. Daniel Figoni and Kenny Flanagan-De La Hoz lead the team in scoring with a combined total of 95 goals. Peter Moore has started in every match in goal this season and has recorded 195 saves.

Santa Clara returns to the pool on Saturday, visiting 15th-ranked UC Davis at noon. The Broncos will host their home opener the following afternoon, taking on Cal Maritime Sunday at noon at the Leavey Pool. Admission is free.