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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Bronco women's water polo team held its season opener Thursday night against No. 6 Hawaii and kicked off a stretch of three games in three days. Santa Clara faced No. 13 Michigan on Friday afternoon at home and will travel to Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday.
No. 6 Hawaii came out strong in the first quarter by going on a six-goal run. Despite the Broncos best offensive efforts they could not find the back of the net. The Rainbow Warriors continued their run into the second quarter by adding two goals to take an 8-0 lead. Erin Sheridan scored the first goal for the Broncos and Kaitlin Murphy followed suit to make the score 9-2.
Murphy kept up her momentum and scored in the starting minute of the third quarter. The Rainbow Warriors answered back with a goal, but Elizabeth Anderson scored to make the game 10-4. Anderson then capitalized on a mistake by Hawaii for a one-on-nobody goal to bring the Broncos within five.
Hawaii took it into the fourth quarter with a seven-goal advantage. Murphy found the back of the net two more times and Julia Peters put in one goal. Hawaii left the pool with the win 13-8 over the Broncos.
In the second game of their three-day stretch, the Broncos faced a tough battle against No. 13 Michigan.
The Wolverines came out strong in the opening minutes, scoring two goals before Sheridan put in the Broncos first goal of the game. Santa Clara battled back and forth with Michigan but ended the first quarter with the advantage with goals by Anderson, Peters Laura Burtness and Elle Surber.
The game tied up again at 8-8 but Claire Eadington scored the only Broncos goal in the third quarter to keep the advantage at 9-8.
Surber broke the silence to start the fourth quarter to make the game 10-8, Bronco advantage. Off of a time-out, Michigan got one passed the defense to make the game 10-9. In a man-up situation, Sheridan fired in a goal to make it a two-goal lead for the Broncos with 2:05 left to play. Michigan scored one more goal but the Broncos finished the Wolverines off 11-10 for the upset.
Continuing off of their big win from Friday, the Broncos brought the heat to old conference rival Cal State Monterey. The Broncos picked up their second win of the weekend to give them a 2-1 record to start the season.
The Broncos hopped out to a two-goal lead with goals by Sheridan and Surber to end the first period. The Otters defense could not stop the Broncos, and they netted four more goals to make the game 6-3, Bronco advantage at half.
The third quarter proved to be the best for the Broncos, scoring five more goals and only allowing one from the Otters. The Broncos put in two more goals in the fourth to end the game with the win over the Otters, 14-6.