Santa Clara Invitational Tournament Central
SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Santa Clara women's water polo closed out its lone home tournament of the season with a victory and won three of its four outings in the two-day event.
The Broncos (7-7) defeated Sonoma State, 9-3, on Sunday in the finale of the Santa Clara Invitational after being edged by Indiana, 8-7, earlier in the day.
On Saturday, Santa Clara rolled past Redlands, 17-8, and then out-lasted Cal State Monterey Bay, 8-5. Those games came one following a 7-6 loss to Cal Baptist in the Golden Coast Conference opener.
"The weekend went well," said head coach Keith Wilbur. "I thought we played consistently well on defense the whole weekend. We had a couple tough, one-goal losses but to good teams, and I really like how we played. There are things we are working on offensively."
Indiana went 4-0 in the seven-team, 13-game tournament that also featured UC Davis.
Game One: Indiana 8, Santa Clara 7
In one of the more entertaining games of the tournament, Jennifer Beadle and Sarah Young each scored three goals for Indiana, which held off a late challenge from the Broncos to claim an 8-7 victory.
Kelly Frumkin had two goals and Annie Eldredge scored once and tallied three assists for the Broncos.
Beadle had the eventual game-winner with less 3 minutes remaining in the game and Young scored all three of her goals in the third quarter when the Hoosiers erased a 5-3 deficit.
Frumkin's second tally early in the fourth quarter pulled the Broncos within 7-6, but with 2:43 remaining Beadle was the recipient of a fortunate bounce to set up her final score.
Young's shot attempt was blocked but the ball ricocheted toward Beadle who was stationed to left of the net and put the shot past Dadd.
Dadd made 14 saves, many of the sparkling variety, for the Broncos.
Jessica Gaudreault turned aside 11 shots for Indiana.
Leading scorer Hannah Buck pulled the Broncos within 8-7 off a feed from Eldredge, but there were only 44 seconds left.
Santa Clara got the ball back with 8 seconds left, but Buck's final attempt was well defended.
Game Two: Santa Clara 9, Sonoma State 3
Lauren Paxton scored three goals and Kelly Frumkin added two to help lead Santa Clara to a 9-3 victory against Sonoma State in the final game of the Santa Clara Invitational.
The Broncos never trailed, pulled away in the third quarter and held the Seawolves scoreless for the final 13 minutes of the game.
Sonoma State's JoJo Williams, who had a game-high nine attempts, scored early in the third period to cut the deficit to 5-3.
Hailey Eberle and Emma Allegrucci scored in the final 2 minutes of the third quarter and Frumkin scored early in the fourth to build the lead to 8-3.
Eberle also had a career-high three assists. Allegucci and Hannah Buck drew two kickouts each, but the Broncos did not convert.
Lydia Dadd only had to make seven saves, but five came in the opening half when two goals in the first 9 minutes from Paxton helped Santa Clara build a 4-1 lead.
NOTES
• Lydia Dadd (goalie), Hannah Buck, Annie Eldredge, Lauren Paxton, Maggie Oys and Hailey Eberle have started all 14 games this season. Mara Dominguez has started the last 11 contests.
• Dadd has seven games this season with double-digit blocks.
NEXT UP
The Broncos will play four games at the Indiana Classic beginning with two games on Saturday. They face Marist at 8:15 a.m. Pacific and Indiana at 5 p.m.
Connect with the Broncos on Social Media
• Athletics: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
• Women's Water Polo: Twitter | Instagram
