Nov. 5, 2006
SANTA CRUZ, Calif - The Santa Clara Broncos swept the season series with conference rival UC Santa Cruz on Saturday, November 4th with a 10-7 victory over the Banana Slugs. With the victory, Santa Clara improves its record to 13-11 overall, and 11-3 in the Western Water Polo Association.
Comparing Saturday's contest with the last time the two teams met, the circumstances were almost identical. It was Santa Cruz's last home match of the season, where they too honored their seniors. And for the first three quarters, it looked like the Banana Slugs had put together a nice sendoff for their graduating class. But looking back at the teams' last meeting in Santa Clara, nobody was going down without a fight.
Santa Cruz came out strong, and set the tone early in the game. At the half, Santa Cruz led 6-2. But then in the second half, the Broncos turned things around. Freshman Mike Sorgenfrei came off the bench and scored two clutch goals for Santa Clara, and Santa Clara sliced the lead in half to make it 6-4 at the end of the third quarter.
Still down two goals, Santa Clara kept up the pressure. Junior Charlie Moore set the table for the Broncos with three assists to help the Broncos take the lead and put the game out of reach. Junior Luke Oda also played a key role, drawing two kickouts and a 5M penalty to help jumpstart the Broncos offense.
Goalscorers for the Broncos included sophomore Jack Wall, who had a hat-trick, and Kevin Starry, Billy Gorin and Mike Sorgenfrei each contributed two goals. Freshman Liam Farrell and sophomore Tommy Hendrickson had a goal apiece. In the cage, Robert Callahan put up another 10-block effort in the victory.
The Broncos are on the other side of the San Francisco Bay on Sunday, November 5th to take on the University of California - this time in Berkeley. Gametime is 2:00 p.m..