DAVIS,
Calif. - The No. 15 Santa Clara men's water polo
team split a pair of games today in the Aggie Shootout, falling to
UC Davis, 5-4, and defeating Redlands, 12-6.
The match against No. 11 UC Davis was tight throughout it
entirety. The Broncos established a 2-0 lead in the first
half on goals by juniors Daley
Meistrell and James
Case. Case scored just 1:37 into the game and Meistrell
capitalized on the power play with 4:32 to go.
Senior Josh Luebke made it 3-0 Santa Clara in the second
quarter, scoring on another man up situation with 3:27 left before
halftime, but the Aggies responded with two goals at 1:15 and 0:41
to pull within one by halftime.
In the third quarter, UC Davis took the lead for the first time
in the game, scoring two goals near the halfway point of the
quarter. Freshman Kyle Nadel
tied it up for the Broncos with his first collegiate goal with 25
seconds left in the quarter.
The Aggies scored the go-ahead goal with 5:02 left to play, but
gave Santa Clara two 6-on-5 situations to try to tie it up.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, they were unable to beat UCD goalie
Kevin Peat when they needed to the most.
Junior goalie Michael
Wishart played all 32 minutes and finished with seven
saves.
Against Redlands, seniors Mitch Klipa and Stephen Hobbs got it
started for Santa Clara with three goals to start the game.
The Bulldogs weren't shutout in the quarter though, scoring a goal
on the power play with 1:32 left in the first.
The Broncos offense exploded for five goals by five different
players in the second quarter. Scoring was Case, sophomore
Patrick Weiss, and freshmen Travis Greco, Tucker Carlson and
Nadel. Redlands scored once, bringing the halftime score to
7-2.
Luebke scored the only Santa Clara goal in the third quarter and
the Bulldogs also scored once.
In the fourth quarter, Case scored twice and senior Nick Poggetti added his first goal of the weekend. Redlands
managed three goals, but by then the game was too far out of reach
as the Broncos went on to a 12-6 victory. Wishart finished
the game with eight saves.
Santa Clara, now 6-6 overall, travels to Southern California
next weekend for a single game against Chapman and also the SoCal
Tournament.
