Nov. 14, 2006
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara Broncos announced today that they have received the fourth seed at the Western Water Polo Association Championships which begin Thursday, November 16th in Pomona, Calif. Despite a 13-14 overall record, the Broncos had a very strong season in the WWPA, finishing 11-3. With the fourth seed, the Broncos will open the tournament on Friday, November 17th at 9:00 a.m. against No. 5 seeded Air Force, whom the Broncos defeated on October 29th by a score of 12-8 in Davis, Calif.
"We're pretty happy. One of our goals was to make it into that 4 or 5 game", said head coach Keith Wilbur. "We've played Air Force before, and we played them pretty tough. I think we definitely have a shot at making it to the semifinals, so we're ready for the challenge."
With the fourth seed, Santa Clara enjoys the luxury of what is almost like a first-round bye, as seeds 6-10 play-off for what would be the seventh and eighth spots in traditional single-elimination brackets. However, the WWPA tournament is not single-elimination, and all ten teams will continue play through Sunday afternoon and receive a ranking of first through tenth at the end.
The No. 1 seed went to UC San Diego, who finished the season 22-5 overall and 12-1 in the WWPA. San Diego handed the Broncos a 12-7 defeat on Saturday, October 28th. Defending champions Loyola Marymount, whom the Broncos upset on October 21st in Davis, Calif. by a score of 9-6 earned the No. 2 seed, and UC Davis, the only team to defeat Santa Clara twice this season, once in overtime, is seeded No. 3.
Final WWPA Standings
Seed/Team W L Pct. vs. WWPA vs. T-20* Home Away Neutral
1. #5 UC San Diego 22 5 0.815 12-1 17-5 7-0 4-3 11-2
2. #7 Loyola Marymount 16 12 0.571 8-4 12-12 7-3 1-3 8-6
3. #14 UC Davis 13 14 0.481 8-4 9-14 4-5 4-5 5-4
4. #17 Santa Clara 13 14 0.481 11-3 4-12 1-1 1-5 11-8
5. #16 Air Force 12 15 0.444 8-5 5-15 4-6 2-1 6-8
6. #19 Redlands 22 9 0.710 9-5 2-8 9-2 5-1 8-6
7. Pomona-Pitzer 15 17 0.469 9-9 1-12 6-1 5-6 4-10
8. UC Santa Cruz 7 20 0.259 5-9 1-17 2-7 0-3 5-10
9. Whittier 10 17 0.370 7-10 0-7 3-1 1-5 6-11
10. La Verne 11 13 0.458 6-7 0-6 8-6 1-3 2-4
Claremont 13 14 0.481 7-9 0-9 6-5 2-3 3-8
Chapman 11 14 0.440 3-10 0-5 4-0 2-8 5-6
Occidental 7 19 0.269 0-15 0-5 1-2 2-4 4-13