SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara women's water polo team gets its 2015 season started with a home match against the University of Hawai'i on Thursday, January 29. It's the first of 23 scheduled matches leading up to the Golden Coast Conference championship tournament on April 23-25 at the University of Pacific.

"We look really good," head coach Keith Wilbur said. "We have a good group with the core of our team being its strength."

The core group consists of juniors Elizabeth Anderson, Erin Sheridan, Julia Peters and Elle Surber. Peters earned second-team All-Golden Coast Conference honors last season, the first for the Broncos in the newly formed conference. Surber led the team with 58 goals last season.

The Broncos leap into the season with a 5:30 p.m. match against eighth-ranked Hawai'i at the Sullivan Aquatic Center in the season opener for both squads.

"They are going to be tough," Wilbur said about the Rainbow Wahine."They recruit some of the best international players and they are very good."

Santa Clara travels to Monterey for a pair of games this Saturday at the Otter Mini Tournament playing host Cal State Monterey Bay and Fresno Pacific in the first of six tournaments on the schedule.

"It's typical to spread out the schedule over several tournaments to play a number of matches," Wilbur noted. "With the different tournaments you get different levels of competition. We can compete with the teams ranked in the 10-20 level."

The Broncos have several matches against top-level competition before starting its second season of GCC play in late March. Top-ranked Stanford is on the schedule Feb. 26 with sixth-ranked UC Irvine scheduled for Feb. 7 at the UCSD Triton Invitational.

"We're not as deep so it will be key to get experience and develop our younger players," Wilbur said. "We know what we are capable of. We competed with the conference champion losing by one goal in last season's tournament."

Also on the schedule are top 20 teams Harvard, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and Indiana all before a demanding GCC schedule that has No. 9 LMU and No. 14 San Diego State. The conference championship tournament will take place at the University of Pacific from Apr. 23-25.

"It's a nice mix," Wilbur said of the Broncos 2015 schedule. "There is good competition throughout and a strong balance of games. If we play well we are capable of winning a high number of games."

The Broncos get their chance Thursday against a Hawai'i team they've never beaten.