Women's water polo shaky in first tournament

By Margo Consul

After finishing 2009 with the best season in the history of their program, the women's water polo team had a rough start to the 2010 season. Santa Clara went 1-3 this weekend at the Nor-Cal Tournament in Berkeley, earning their first win of the season, but overall it was not how they wanted to finish.

The then-No. 19 Broncos shut down Sonoma State 8-1 but fell to Cal State East Bay and two higher ranked teams, No. 4 Cal and No. 8 San Jose State.

Last Thursday, Santa Clara opened its season at home with a heartbreaking 6-5 loss to No. 15 UC Santa Barbara in triple overtime.

The Broncos had finished with a record of 17-15 overall and 10-3 in the Western Water Polo Association. The team went into the 2009 WWPA tournament as the No. 3 seed and finished as No. 2, which is their highest ranking in the program's history.

Despite the rough start to the 2010 season, the team is being led by the returning upperclassmen.

Last season, Head Coach Keith Wilbur expressed excitement in the future of the program.

"We have good players coming back so we need to see what happens next year with the new group," he said. "You are going to miss your seniors, but it's exciting with the new group of freshmen coming in. Every year you come back with more experience you go with that team and see how it goes."

On Saturday, the Broncos' first match of the tournament was against No. 8 San Jose State. Santa Clara hung tough but faced a three goal deficit at the half. In the fourth quarter, The Spartans outscored the Broncos 3-0 and cruised to the 12-6 victory.

Senior Jenny Knutson netted two goals against the Spartans to lead her team.

"Our offense was better in the San Jose State game as compared to Thursday's game (against UCSB)," said Wilbur. "But our defense was lacking."

Santa Clara then took on No. 4 tournament host Cal. The Bears made their statement early, racking up seven goals in the first quarter. The Bears scored seven more unanswered goals to defeat the Broncos by a score of 16-2.

"Cal is very good, but we can play better," Wilbur said. "We need to be able to get more out of that game and need to have a stronger start. It's early in the season though and hopefully it's a lesson learned."

After going down 2-0 on Saturday, the Broncos looked to rebound against Sonoma State.

Santa Clara gained a three-goal lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Sonoma State would only get one on the Broncos, that goal coming in the second quarter. Santa Clara blew out Sonoma 8-1 for their first victory of the season.

Junior transfer Caitlin Espe led the rout with three goals in the match.

However, the winning feeling wouldn't last long as Santa Clara went up against Cal State East Bay in a tough match. The Broncos had a 3-2 lead after the first quarter and carried a 9-8 lead after the third. In the fourth, East Bay squeezed out five goals to Santa Clara's three, holding on for the win.

Knutson had two more goals on the day, bringing her total to seven for the weekend. Both junior Taylor Harkins and senior Meg Zimmerman had four goals.

Goalkeeper Wren White recorded 23 saves on the weekend.

The women will get back to action on Saturday Feb. 6 in Seaside against the CSU Monterey Bay Otters at 10 a.m.

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