Oct. 29, 2009

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The No. 13 Santa Clara men's water polo team will play No. 9 UC Santa Barbara this Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the Sullivan Aquatics Center. The match is the second-to-last home game as the Broncos embark on a five-game road schedule over the next two weeks before returning home for a pre-WWPA tune-up against California on Nov. 15.

The 9-8 Gauchos will play top-ranked USC at home before heading up to the Mission Campus, while Santa Clara will have fresh bodies for the match. UCSB has two quality wins over Pepperdine this season as part of their nine victories, and against WWPA teams, has defeated each one it has played aside from Loyola Marymount. The Lions stole two from the Gauchos, including an overtime thriller at the UC Irvine Invitational.

Milos Golic is UCSB's most prolific scorer with 42 tallies, while Noah Smith has 26 and Zsombor Vincze has 17. In the cage, starter Fraser Bunn has a goals-against-average of 10.1, has been scored on 124 times, and has 121 saves.

Santa Clara is led by senior Jack Wall with 49 goals and 34 assists and is backed up by several quality players. Junior Nick Poggetti is coming off a 14-goal weekend and has 35 total goals for the season. Senior Liam Farrell has 29 goals and 22 assists and junior Stephen Hobbs, in relief of Poggetti, has 15 goals on 26 attempts. Sophomore Daley Meistrell has been a great playmaker, earning 25 assists, second only to Wall's total and senior Mike Sorgenfrei has been stellar on both ends of the pool. Sophomore goalie Michael Wishart has 130 goals against in 20 games played, with 149 blocks, 22 steals, and 14 assists.

The Broncos are 6-6 against ranked opponents this season and 0-5 against top-ten teams. Santa Clara leads the WWPA with a 17-7 overall record (.708) and is 8-2 against conference sides.

Admission to Friday's game is free. Fans are encouraged to wear appropriate costumes for the Halloween holiday and RSVP to the team's Facebook event page.