Oct. 16, 2005
Berkeley, Calif. - The Santa Clara men's water polo team scored its third victory over a ranked opponent in 2005 with an 8-6 overtime thriller against No. 16 Air Force on the second day of the NorCal Tournament, hosted by UC Berkeley. Freshman Jack Wall led all scorers with three goals in the game, followed by Tommy Kelly who contributed two. Grant Allison, Jon Greco, and Tom Hendrickson also contributed a goal. In addition to his scoring prowess, Wall added three steals, two assists and drew two kickouts. Chris Parolin also had a good overall game, notching two steals and drawing two kickouts. In the cage, Mike Petersen accumulated 11 blocks to help secure the win.
At the end of regulation, the two teams were tied 6-6, but then Wall and Kelly stepped up to the plate and scored in the overtime period, accounting for the final score.
"It was a huge game. Air Force is in our conference and it great to beat them, since they beat us two weeks ago in Santa Cruz," said head coach Keith Wilbur. "It's nice to come around and get a win against them."
In the Bronco's final match at the NorCal Tournament, they faced No. 15 UC Santa Barbara and dropped a tough 9-7 decision. The team fell into an early 3-0 deficit and were never able to recover. Wall was again the leader of the pack, tossing in three goals, while Luke Oda, Kevin Starry, Whit Gilfillan and Kelly all contributed a goal in the losing cause. Petersen notched five blocks and two steals at goalkeeper. William Gorin had one assist and three steals, while Mike Detoy was able to draw three kickouts.
"Santa Barbara is another good team. It was tough going against them after going through that overtime game against Air Force in the morning," said Wilbur. "We didn't come out in the first quarter like we needed to. You can't do that against a good team. I think we played the rest of the game pretty well, but it was too big of a hole to climb out of the rest of the way."
Santa Clara drops its record to 13-9 on the year after today's split. The Broncos return to action next Saturday when they travel to Davis, Calif. to take on UC Davis for a noon match-up.
