No. 19 Santa Clara men’s water polo (11-11) hosted its annual Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament from Oct. 23-25, one of the team’s biggest weekends of the year that attracts top opponents across the country.
Notable participants this year included No. 6 Princeton, No. 10 UC Davis and No.18 Harvard.
The Julian Fraser Memorial Invitational is named after former Santa Clara men’s water polo player Julian Fraser ’18, who passed away from a rare form of cancer known as osteosarcoma.
The Broncos retired Fraser’s No. 7, and in 2017, renamed the annual tournament formerly known as the Rodeo Tournament in his honor. During the tournament, the Broncos wear special blue trunks that honor Fraser’s legacy.
The Broncos came into the tournament looking to break a six-game losing streak in which they faced six ranked teams in a row. The last three games of the losing streak were three close losses.
The day before the tournament began, the Broncos lost a heartbreaker to No. 6 Princeton by a score of 12-11 after the Tigers managed to score with 1.1 seconds left.
The Broncos kicked off the tournament on Oct. 23 against LIU (12-16). The game was a domination from the start as the Broncos built a 6-1 lead in the first quarter and never let it go, resulting in a final score of 22-10.
The game marked a significant moment for Grant Roesch ’27, who got on the scoresheet in his first game of the season. Fourteen different Broncos added to the tally. Ashton Brown ’29, Jamie De Zwart ’29, and Charlie Engs ’27 all managed hat tricks.
Early the next morning, Santa Clara took on No. 20 Brown (17-8). The Broncos continued their trend of capitalizing on early leads by jumping out to a 5-1 start at the end of the first period and kept their foot on the gas.
Standout performers were Ricardo De Simon ’28, who marked two goals and three assists, and Imme van der Schaaf with four assists and a goal. The Bears added five goals in the last period, but it wasn’t enough, leaving the final score 14-10 in favor of the Broncos.
The Broncos finished off the tournament on Sunday, Oct. 25th with a win over the Iona Gaels (8-18). Santa Clara was dominant throughout the game and took an 11-4 lead into halftime, after a seven-goal second quarter.
Connor Clougherty ’30 was a standout in the net with eight saves. De Zwart added his second hat trick of the weekend, and Van der Schaaf added his first. De Simon contributed two goals to extend his team’s leading goal total to 52. Luke Baird ’27 and Henry Engs ‘28 also scored two goals. The final score was 20-8 in favor of Santa Clara.
The Broncos’ perfect weekend brought their record to 0.500 at 11-11. The team will hope to use the momentum from this weekend to prepare for a pair of important conference clashes on Oct. 30-31 against Saint Mary’s and No. 15 San Jose State, respectively.