SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The Santa Clara women's water polo team finished out the regular season last weekend and now travels to San Diego to participate in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) Championship. This year's tournament is hosted by GCC leader San Diego State and takes place Friday through Sunday.
Fifth-seeded Santa Clara (10-14, 3-4) plays in the third game on Friday at 3 p.m. against fourth-seeded conference rival LMU (11-9, 4-3). The winner plays the top-seeded Aztecs Saturday at 3 p.m.
"LMU is definitely a good team," said head coach Keith Wilbur. "We're both pretty similar in what we do offensively and defensively, it's just a question of coming out in the first round and playing and executing well. In our conference, us, LMU, and Pacific are the three WCC schools so there is a natural rivalry there anyway. The team always gets fired up to play against LMU and I'm sure it's the same thing for them."
The Broncos faced the Lions on the road earlier this month, dropping the close contest by a final score of 10-7. Santa Clara tied the game four times but were never able to take the lead. Cathy Cantoni and Elle Surber each scored two goals.
Santa Clara is led into the Championship Tournament weekend by recently named Second Team All-GCC players Surber and Elizabeth Anderson. Surber is Santa Clara's all-time leader with 176 goals, including 37 this season. Anderson is second all-time in Santa Clara history with 203 earned ejections including 45 this season.
Freshman standout Hannah Buck was named to the GCC All-Freshman team following a season with 26 goals, six assists, eight steals, and 32 earned ejections.
"Elizabeth and Elle have been standout players all four years and so they definitely play at that all conference level and deserve the recognition," Wilbur said. "Hannah had an outstanding freshman year and it's great she was named to the all freshman team."
Senior goalkeeper Sydni Estrella has been an anchor for the Bronco defense since returning from an elbow injury. Estrella is seventh in the GCC with 121 saves, third in goals against with 7.7 per game, and second in saves per game with 10.14.
"Our focus is on LMU right now," Wilbur commented. "To win that game and get in the semifinals and get in the top four would be great and if we get to that point we'll look at the next game. It should be a great matchup and we're looking forward to that first game this weekend."
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