Sept. 17, 2006
STANFORD, Calif - The Santa Clara men's water polo team had another rough weekend in the pool at the NorCal Invitational at Stanford, losing all four of their matches to teams that were all ranked in the top-20 in the nation. On Saturday, the Broncos were defeated by USC and UC Santa Barbara, and then Sunday were defeated by Princeton and Long Beach State.
Saturday morning was a tough test for the Broncos as they matched up with no. 2 ranked USC. The Broncos were held scoreless until the third quarter when they really got things going. In the final two quarters the Broncos got goals from Charlie Moore, Jack Wall, and Billy Gorin had two, as the team was defeated 22-4. But as has been the case so far this season, the progress of the team lies beneath the final score. Freshman Luke Oda had an outstanding match, drawing three kickouts and a penalty shot, which teammate Billy Gorin converted. One of the Broncos biggest offensive weapons, sophomore Jack Wall also drew two kickouts in addition to his goal.
Saturday afternoon the Broncos did much better against UC Santa Barbara. Going into halftime, the match was very tight at 8-5 in favor of UCSB. Unfortunately, the Broncos were not able to come back, and fell 16-8 in their final match of the day. Freshmen Liam Farrell and Mike Sorgenfrei stepped up and had exceptional performances, combining for five goals in the loss.
Sunday the Broncos met Princeton and Long Beach State, both losing efforts. The morning contest against Princeton was the most competitive the Broncos had been all throughout the tournament, falling by only two goals in the 10-8 final result. And in the afternoon match against, Long Beach State, the Broncos were ready for the challenge and again came extremely close, but again fell by only two goals. Jack Wall and Liam Farrell combined for two goals each on the day as both made their cases for the best performing Broncos of the tournament.
The Broncos, after facing the nations best water polo teams will now prepare for conference play at the SlugFest in Santa Cruz next weekend on September 23rd and 24th.
Results:
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Stanford University Belardi Pool, 8:00 a.m.
USC def. Santa Clara 22-4
Stanford University Belardi Pool, 1:20 p.m.
UC Santa Barbara def. Santa Clara 16-8
Sunday, September 17 2006
Stanford University Belardi Pool, 9:20 a.m.
Princeton def. Santa Clara 10-8
Stanford University Belardi Pool, 1:20 p.m.
Long Beach State def. Santa Clara 12-10