WWPA Championships Tournament Schedule/Bracket

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara water polo team will look to build off a late season trend of finishing games when it plays in this weekend's Western Water Polo Association Championships at Air Force.

The 15th-ranked Broncos (11-19, 2-4), who have won six of their last 11 games, rallied to a 10-9 victory against San Jose State in Saturday's regular-season finale. One week earlier they closed out a 9-7 win against Fresno Pacific by scoring five of the last eight goals.

"I think the second half of the season we have definitely been playing better," head coach Keith Wilbur said. "We won more close games than we did in the first half."

Sixth-seeded Santa Clara will face No. 3 seed UC San Diego Friday at 2:15 p.m. Pacific in first-round action in the seven-team field. The Tritans have won the last two conference titles.

The Broncos, who have knocked off seven top 20 teams this year, faced the 16th-ranked Tritans (11-13, 4-2) three times in the regular season. UC San Diego came out on top in each, but Santa Clara kept the games lose. In the last meeting on Oct. 29, the Broncos and Tritans were tied at 2-all at the half before UC San Diego pulled away in the third quarter.

The Broncos have relied on a young roster this season. Sophomore John Raineri leads the team in goals (42) and assists (39), while redshirt freshman Owen Asalone is second in goals with 39.

"We have a younger team this year," Wilbur said. "We have just two graduating seniors in Evan Chang and Joe Maestri and three redshirt freshmen starting. It's getting that game experience and learning how to finish games."

Chang and Maestri have been important cogs for the Broncos. Chang, one of four Broncos honored by the league Wednesday, is the school's all-time leader with 184 earned ejections. Maestri has started a team-high 22 games in net.

The three-day tournament in Colorado continues until Sunday.