By Benito Amaral
Click here to see the 2014 Bronco men's water polo schedule
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara men's water polo head coach Keith Wilbur announced the Broncos' 2014 fall schedule which features several top-ranked teams, four from the WWPA. The Broncos will also take on the runner-up from the 2013 NCAA Championship, No. 1 Pacific, as well as the local rival that was a semi-finalist, No. 4 Stanford.
"We are excited about the upcoming season and the strong competition we will be seeing," said Bronco head coach Keith Wilbur. "We start with a tournament at Brown University, and this will be our first time traveling there. We are also playing in several other tournaments throughout the season including the Norcal Tournament at UOP, the Aggie Shootout at UC Davis, and we will be hosting the Rodeo tournament in late October. Our conference schedule is very competitive as usual, and we have several non-conference head to head games, including Stanford, UOP, Pepperdine and Redlands."
Santa Clara will begin with an exhibition match on the road against Stanford on Sept. 6. The Broncos will then travel to Providence, R.I. where they will start off their regular season schedule with Brown's Bruno Fall Classic, which is a three day event held on Sept. 12 -14. In last season's east coast trip, the Broncos came out victorious in all three matches making the trip a success.
The Broncos will continue with their road journey by playing in two other away tournaments. First, the Broncos play at the NorCal Tournament hosted by Pacific on Sept. 20-21. They will then compete at the Aggie Shootout hosted by UC Davis on Sept. 26-27.
After a month of away competition, the Broncos will begin their home stretch with the annual Alumni Game on Oct. 4 at 1 pm, followed by a 6 pm game against Bay Area rival Pacific.
As for the month of October, the majority of the matches are being held at home, but first Santa Clara will have two away games. The men will play their first two conference matches on the road against Cal Baptist on Oct. 10 and Air Force on Oct. 18.
The Broncos will then host their annual Rodeo Tournament on Oct. 24-26. Last season, Santa Clara finished the tournament with a 4-1 record, including big wins over Cal Baptist, Brown and Bucknell. Their conference journey will continue at home against LMU on Oct. 31 at 4 pm and UC San Diego on Nov. 1.
Santa Clara is set to have a tough schedule ahead of them in the month of November. They will take on Fresno Pacific on the road on Nov. 8. They will host Stanford on Nov. 12 at 6 pm and Pepperdine on Nov. 14. The Broncos will then close out their regular season by hosting UC Davis at home on Nov. 16 at 12 pm.
This year's WWPA Tournament will be hosted by LMU on Nov. 21-23. Last season, the Broncos finished third in the WWPA Tournament and they will aspire to reach the finals this year.
Go Broncos!
