Near perfect play at home tourney

By Margo Consul

In their first home games of the season, the Santa Clara men's water polo team came out of the Bronco Invitational with a 3-1 record.

Santa Clara (10-3) cruised through matches against Cal Lutheran University, Whittier College and University of Redlands, but then fell to conference rival No. 15 University of California Davis (9-4) by a score of 8-7.

The Broncos were looking to their veterans for leadership this weekend. Senior and All-American Jack Wall had 13 goals in four tournament games, while junior Nick Pogetti and senior Liam Farrell contributed with 9 and 7 goals, respectively.

Despite the disappointing tournament finish, Santa Clara came back from multiple deficits against UC Davis.

"They got up on us 3-1, and I think we reacted to that," head coach Keith Wilbur said.

UC Davis had a two-goal lead at the end of the first period. For the rest of the game it would be back-and-forth struggle between the teams.

Santa Clara started the final period strong, pushing its lead to 7-5.

However, the Aggies stole the momentum and scored three unanswered goals, the last coming with 3:06 remaining, to win the game.

Santa Clara had defeated UC Davis at the NorCal Invitational on September 20 by a score of 9-4.

"We had some runs, they had some runs," Wilbur said. "We're in a situation where we're not too happy if we lose a game."

The heartbreaking loss followed a string of three impressive performances by the Broncos.

During their 8 a.m. match on Saturday against Cal Lutheran University, Santa Clara took an early 3-0 lead and was up 5-2 after the first.

Within roughly the first three minutes of the second period, CLU tied it up 5-5. However, Santa Clara netted four straight of their own to take a 9-5 lead at the end of the period.

Santa Clara dominated the third period, outscoring CLU 5 to 1 to take a 13-6 lead into the final period. The teams exchanged goals multiple times from there, and the Broncos came away victorious 17-10.

"Our counter attack was really strong this morning and we scored a lot of goals through that early," said Wilbur. "It was our first home game and a good way to start the tournament."

Wilbur identified that, even with high offensive output, the team did not play the best to its strengths.

"Our strength is our defense and we didn't play our defense this morning," he said. "I have to give Cal Lutheran credit; we couldn't shut them down."

In their match against Whittier, the Broncos got the lead early and would hold onto it, securing a 13-5 victory.

Santa Clara went up 5-1 in the first period, scored three more goals in the second to the Poets' one, and entered the second half with an 8-2 lead.

The Broncos kept Whittier scoreless in the third while tacking on three more goals to increase their lead to 11-2. The Poets would find the net again in the fourth and score three goals, but it would be too little too late as Santa Clara would put up two more to seal the deal.

In a more competitive match against University of Redlands, Santa Clara took command after allowing the first goal of the game. Santa Clara built a 4-2 first period lead and took a 7-2 lead in the second period, shutting out the Bulldogs for the remainder of the half.

The Broncos went up 9-2 on two straight goals by senior Mike Sorgenfrei within 30 seconds in the third period. However, Redlands would come back and score three goals in the third period to close the gap to 9-5.

Santa Clara would prevail with a final score of 13-9.

"With us going up 9-2 on them shows we were really playing well, but I told the team I didn't expect to hold that lead," said Wilbur. "Redlands is well-coached. I knew they would make a run and they did. I am glad we weathered that."

The Broncos will be back in action this weekend as they will head to Claremont to compete in the Claremont Convergence tournament. Their next home game will be against No. 2 UCLA on Sunday, October 4 at 11 a.m. at the Sullivan Aquatic Center.

Contact Margo Consul at mconsul@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.