SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The Santa Clara women's water polo team picked up a huge win over Cal St. East Bay 10-7 at the Sullivan Aquatic Center on Saturday. With the win, the Broncos tie up the season series with the Pioneers. In the afternoon game, the Broncos fell 13-4 to No. 1 Stanford in the first game between the two schools since 2009.
"I thought it was our most complete game from start to finish," said Bronco head coach Keith Wilbur regarding the win over Cal St. East Bay. "We played great defense throughout and there were stretches where we played really good offense. It's always great to get a conference win."
The Broncos jumped out to a 3-2 lead over the Pioneers thanks to first quarter goals from Sarah Safir, Marina Allen, and Kaitlin Murphy. Alison Norris added a six-on-five goal before Allen pushed the Broncos lead to two with a beautiful bar-in from seven meters out to give the Broncos a 5-3 lead into the beak
The Broncos kept the pressure on Cal St. East Bay, as the Ashleigh Bandimere found Safir on the counter to push the Broncos lead to 3. The Broncos answered the Pioneers six-on-five goal with one of their own, as Eadington burried a shot off the nearside bar. Bandimere converted a lob on the counter attack to keep the lead at three.
Senior captain Allen and junior Stephanie Clements came up huge during the fourth for the Broncos. Allen scored two goals from the perimeter and Clements added five fourth quarter saves as the Pioneers tried to forge a comeback.
Against Stanford the Broncos were led by Bandimere's hat-trick. Allen added one goal for Santa Clara while June Afshar came off the bench to make a career-high six saves.
Santa Clara 10, Cal St. East Bay 7 - FINAL
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |||||||||||
| CSUEB | 2 |
1 |
2 | 2 | 7 | ||||||||||
| SCU |
3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
CSUEB Goals: Crain 2, McAfee 2, Clark, Paschall, Armstrong
SCU Goals: Allen 4, Safir 2, Bandimere, Norris, Eadington, Murphy
Saves: Clements 13 (SCU); Pekarske 9 (CSUEB)
Stanford 13, Santa Clara 4- FINAL
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |||||||||||
| STAN | 6 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 13 | ||||||||||
| SCU | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Stan Goals: Neushal 2, A. Lo 2, Carpenter 2, Dodson 2, Churnside 2, Grossman, Coughlan
SCU Goals: Bandimere 3, Allen 1
Saves: Clements 4 (SCU), Afshar 6 (SCU); Dorst 6 (Stan)