Oct. 5, 2007

Claremont, Calif. -The Santa Clara men's water polo team put forth a solid effort today in the first day of the Convergence Classic. The Broncos beat conference foes Whittier 13-4 in the afternoon and then proceeded to take down Pomona in their home pool in a night game in front of a big crowd.

In the early afternoon game against Whittier, the Broncos led 8-2 at half before the lead was cut to 8-4 in the third. The team responded by scoring the next five goals to build up the lead on route to a 13-4 victory.

Josh Early, Liam Farrell, Matthew Martin, and Tommy Hendrickson all scored two goals apiece. Rounding out the scoring for the Broncos was Mark Soares, Mitchell Klipa, Mike Detoy, Stephen Hobbs, and Matt Adler who all scored once. Charlie Moore got into the action with three assists and a steal, as well as Luke Oda who chipped in two assists and two steals.

Robert Callahan and Chris Jones split the game in goal, with Callahan blocking eight shots and Jones recording seven blocks.

The story for the Broncos, however, was the night game against Pomona-Pitzer. "Our guys played great in front of a packed house against a team in the top half of our conference," said head coach Keith Wilbur. "They kept their composure in a tight game."

The score was 6-5 in the first half before a goal by Early with three seconds to go took the lead to two goals and gave the Broncos a little more breathing room. "Josh scored some really big goals for us that game," said Wilbur.

Pomona kept it tight in the fourth, but some huge goals by Andrew Fitch put the game away for good. "Fitch also played a great game defensively, along with Tommy Kelly," said Wilbur.

Callahan was a wall in goal as usual, blocking 13 shots, his second highest total of the season, to go along with two steals.

Early and Hendrickson both had three goals for the Broncos, Fitch had two, and Oda and Kelly finished with one. Mike Sorgenfrei recorded three assists and a steal and Charlie Moore did his part with two assists and two steals.

Santa Clara has a quick turnaround after tonight's game, facing off against Brown, the team tied with the Broncos at No. 20 in the national rankings, at 8 a.m. Then the team finishes off the tournament against another WWPA opponent, Cal Lutheran in the afternoon.