SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara men's water polo will face a stretch of strong competition at this weekend's Mountain Pacific Invitational.
The three-day tournament, which will be held at Cal, starts Friday. The Broncos (4-4) open play by facing a strong No. 2-ranked USC (6-0) squad at 1 p.m. in bracket B of the 16-team field. Santa Clara then meets either No. 7 Long Beach State (6-1) or No. 11 UC Davis (7-2) on Saturday.
The Mountain Pacific, in previous years known as the NorCal Invitational, will feature the best competition water polo has to offer.
"It's the one big tournament during the year, there used to be two, but now it's just this one," head coach Keith Wilbur said. "Basically there's 16 teams and of those you have the top 10 teams in the country plus more, so every game is really good competition."
The Broncos had their three-game winning streak snapped at last week's Aggie Roundup in Davis, California, though the two losses came at the hands of No. 3 Cal and No. 4 Pacific, both of which are undefeated on the season.
Junior Graham McClone and freshman Mac Carey look to continue to lead the offensive attack for the Broncos. McClone and Carey share the scoring lead with 15 goals apiece. Carey has also has a team-high 13 assists. Reilley May, also a freshman, has a team-best 17 kickouts drawn.
Wilbur is looking for more production with the man advantage during the team's four games in Berkeley, California.
"I think we have been playing well, but the only area we have consistently had a hard time in is power plays, our 6 on 5," Wilbur said. "We have been working on it a lot the past couple weeks and to me its looking better in practice but you never really know until you play other teams."
The Broncos will play another game Saturday and one on Sunday.
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