Posted: Apr 27, 2013
On a beautiful afternoon at the Sullivan Aquatic Center, the No. 3 seeded Santa Clara Broncos fell 8-5 to the No. 2 seeded Loyola Marymount Lions in the semifinals of the WWPA Championships.
Santa Clara will play Sunday in the third place game against Colorado St., who fell 14-6 to UC San Diego in the first semifinal. The Broncos have defeated the Rams twice this season, 11-8 at UC Davis on March 3rd and most recently at The Bronco on April 7th, 11-9.
The Broncos got a hat-trick from 1st team WWPA All-Conference selection Julia Peters, all coming in the first three quarters. Junior Jenny Anderson scored a goal for Santa Clara and freshman Elle Surber added one for SCU. Senior goalkeeper Stephanie Clements made seven blocks including a huge save on a penalty shot in the third quarter to keep it a one-goal game.
Despite goals from Anderson and Peters, the Broncos trailed 3-2 after the first period. Peters found the back of the net again to begin the second, this time from the outside as Santa Clara tied the game up at three.The Broncos kept the momentum as Surber scored on the man-advantage to give Santa Clara the lead at 4:37 of the 2nd, . It would be the only lead for SCU of the day. LMU countered with two goals before the break and took a 5-4 lead into the third quarter.
LMU continued their momentum from the break scoring the first goal of the third quarter on a 6 on 4. LMU appeared to have taken control of the game when the Lions drew a five-meter at the six-minute mark of the third, but Clements came up huge by blocking the penalty shot for Santa Clara. Alison Norris earned a five meter opportunity of her own for SCU and Peters put the shot away for her third goal of the game to cut the LMU lead to one.
Defense would dictate the next several minutes as Loyola Marymount was the only team to find the score board the rest of the third, cashing in on a goal with eight seconds remaining in the quarter to give the Lions a two gaol lead. The fourth quarter started with a number of big stops on the defensive end before LMU finally cashed in a goal to push their lead to three. Neither team would score the rest of the way and LMU would win the game 8-5.