Oct. 15, 2005

Berkeley, Calif. - In one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year, No. 18 Santa Clara dropped two matches to higher ranked opponents at the NorCal Tournament, hosted by UC Berkeley. With 15 of the competing 16 squads ranked in the Top 20, head coach Keith Wilbur knew that the tournament would be a challenge for his team and in the first game of the day, No. 2 Southern California proved to be too big of an obstacle to overcome. Tom Hendrickson scored the lone goal in the 14-1 defeat. Mike Petersen recorded seven blocks, while Jack Wall drew two kickouts.

"USC is a great team, but I thought we could have much better," said Wilbur. "It was the first game of the tournament, but I think we could have executed better in the match."

In the afternoon contest, the Broncos took on a familiar squad, the No. 9 Pacific Tigers. Just two weeks ago, SCU took out Pacific in a tight 9-8 victory and Wilbur was hoping for another repeat performance. Unfortunately, the Tigers were able to defeat the Broncos 8-4. Grant Allison had a good overall game, scoring two goals and drawing two kickouts. Josh Early and Tommy Kelly scored the other goals. Wall finished with one assist and three steals, while Chris Parolin notched two assists and two kickouts. Goalie Petersen blocked seven shots.

"It was close throughout, but we had some key breakdowns that allowed Pacific to pull away," said Wilbur. "I thought we had a chance to win, and hopefully we'll be able to do better tomorrow.

Santa Clara drops to 12-8 on the year and will return to action tomorrow morning at 9:10 a.m., when they take on a yet to be determined opponent.