April 16, 2009

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - In their final week of regular season action in the 2009 campaign, the No. 20 Santa Clara women's water polo team will travel to No. 10 UC Davis on Friday, April 17. The Broncos will square off with the Aggies at 5:30 p.m. in their second season meeting. SCU will close out the regular season the following day when they host WWPA rival UC Santa Cruz at noon at the Sullivan Aquatic Center. Prior to Saturday's game versus UCSC, Santa Clara will honor the career of the graduating senior class.

Last Time Out
The Broncos (16-14, 9-3 WWPA) enter their final week of regular season action with a No. 20 ranking. After spending five previous weeks in the national poll, Santa Clara closes out 2009 in the top-20.

SCU enjoyed a bye week last week, which followed their strong 3-1 performance at The Bronco from April 4-5. Santa Clara defeated three conference rivals: Colorado State 8-5, CS San Bernardino 13-8, and upset then-No. 18 UC San Diego with a 10-7 victory. Their lone setback came at the hands of then-No. 10 and conference leader LMU, who took a 14-8 victory.

Thanks For the Memories!
Fans please join the Santa Clara women's water polo team on Saturday, April 18, as they celebrate the careers of the 2009 graduating seniors. Seventh season head coach and Broncos will honor Kendal Hildebrand, Maria Jarrell, Allie Lamb, Amy Lamb, Claire Linney and Kirstin Olson prior to the noon game versus the Banana Slugs of UCSC.

SCU would like to thank these six women for their dedication to the Bronco women's water polo team during their respective Santa Clara careers.

Solid Conference Play at The Bronco
In the first hosted tournament at the new Sullivan Aquatic Center, the Broncos' proved that home pool advantage does come in handy. SCU posted a 3-1 record at The Bronco tournament versus four conference opponents. Santa Clara proved to be resilient on the weekend, as all three of their wins were back-and-forth games. They opened up the weekend with an 8-5 win over Colorado State. The Rams did not hand over the victory easily, but the Broncos responded well to CSU's offensive attack and were able to post their seventh WWPA victory of the season. They split day one results with a 14-8 loss to Loyola Marymount. In their loss to LMU, the Lions took off on an 8-0 run in the first half. With an eight-point deficit, the Broncos responded in the second half with eight goals, but they were not able to defensively keep Loyola Marymount out of the cage, as the Lions scored six additional goals in the second half.

Santa Clara returned to the pool on the final day of tournament play and went 2-0 versus conference opponents CS San Bernardino and then-No. 18 UC San Diego. Versus CSUSB, every goal that was scored by SCU was responded with a Coyote goal, and vice versa, until the second half. After two back-and-forth periods of play, SCU took off and earned their first win of the season over San Bernardino. The Broncos closed out the weekend with a 10-7 upset over the then eighteenth-ranked Tritons of UCSD. The very aggressive game tallied 20 combined kick outs and in the first three-and-a-half quarters SCU held onto a lead; however UC San Diego tied it up at four different points. In the fourth period, SCU solidified their ninth conference victory of the season with a 2-0 run in the fourth.

Scouting No. 10 UC Davis
Northern California rival No. 10 UC Davis will host Santa Clara for the second time this season. After falling in their first meeting at the Aggie Shootout on March 8, 11-6, the Broncos look to earn their second straight victory over a top-20 opponent. The Aggies, (21-8, 4-1 Big West) who are riding a 2-0 win streak, defeated Pacific on April 11, 14-6. UCD is led by goal scoring leader Lindsay Kiyama, who's scored 40 goals, Sofia Patronas, who posts 40 assists, and Casey Hines, who's tallied 169 blocks.

Scouting UC Santa Cruz
The Broncos close out the 2009 season with WWPA rival UC Santa Cruz. After defeating the Banana Slugs, 8-2 on February 28, at the Slugfest Tournament, SCU looks to post a perfect 2-0 record versus UCSC this season. The Slugs, who are a Division III team, are currently ranked No. 4 in the DIII national poll this week. They travel to Santa Clara after going 1-1 last weekend. They fell to Sonoma State, 13-9 on April 10, and defeated CS Monterey Bay 8-7 the following day.