July 28, 2006
2006 Men's Water Polo Schedule
Santa Clara, Calif. - The Santa Clara University men's water polo team announced its schedule today for the upcoming 2006 season. A program on the rise, the Broncos play an even stronger schedule than 2005 when they showed a six-win improvement to finish with a 16-16 record.
Led by fifth-year head coach Keith Wilbur, who last year became the winningest men's water polo coach in school history with 53 wins, the Broncos open their season with a trip to the East Coast to play in the Navy Labor Day Open on Sept. 2 and 3. They will extend that trip an extra day to take on a Navy team that won 22 games last season on Sept. 4 in Annapolis, Md. SCU will also compete in the NorCal Tournament, the UC Santa Cruz Slugfest, the Claremont Convergence Tournament and the Aggie Shootout in Davis. Last year, the Broncos finished Convergence Tournament with a perfect 4-0 record.
"We start off with a trip to Navy, which should be great for us to face some new, strong competition," said Wilbur. "Overall, I think that we are playing some strong teams and excellent tournaments, so we are all excited about the challenge. To keep getting better as a program, we have to keep playing top competition and I think that we are doing that."
The Broncos will host three matches at home, including the annual Alumni Game on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 12 noon PT. The other two home games come on Sunday, Oct. 1 against UC Davis at 10:00 a.m. PT and Saturday, Oct. 14 at 1:00 p.m. PT against UC Santa Cruz. Wilbur's squad finishes the regular season with four road contests against local opponents, UC Santa Cruz (Nov. 4), California (Nov. 5), Pacific (Nov. 11) and Stanford (Nov. 12). The Broncos will then look to build on their sixth place finish from 2005 in the Western Water Polo Association Championships on Nov. 17, 18, and 19 in Pomona.