LOS ANGELES - No. 18 Santa Clara men's water polo's three-goal advantage in the early stages of the fourth quarter proved to be not quite enough against No. 8 LMU on Sunday. The Lions scored five unanswered goals and turned away the Broncos' tying attempt in the final seconds to complete the 14-13 comeback victory. SCU dropped to 0-3 in WCC play while LMU remained perfect at 5-0.
Santa Clara (8-10) did not trail in the contest until just over two minutes remaining. They held a 7-5 advantage at halftime and 11-8 at the end of the third quarter. LMU (14-6) scored first to open the fourth, but
Darion Wang answered to give the Broncos the three-goal advantage once again. The Lions then completely flipped the script by scoring five unanswered to take a 14-12 lead with just 1:06 to play.
Charlie Engs promplty found the back of the net to put an end to end to the spree and make it a one-possession game once again, and SCU got the necessary stop on defense with 30 seconds remaining to set up one last chance on offense.
Luke Baird rattled off the final shot with less than 10 seconds to play, but LMU made the save and drained the clock to prevent the upset.
A total of 10 Broncos found the back of the net with
Riccardo De Simon,
Jamie De Zwart and Baird each logging a pair of goals.
Harrison Labrosse made seven total saves in his 32 minutes of work in the net.
The Broncos conclude their SoCal road trip with a pair of tough one-score losses to ranked programs. They return to Sullivan Aquatic Center next week beginning on Thursday, Oct. 22, against Princeton before hosting the annual Julian Fraser Memorial, Oct. 23-25.
Santa Clara Goals:
Baird (2), De Simon (2), De Zwart (2), Alietti (1),
Henry Engs (1),
Charlie Engs (1), Brown (1), van der Schaaf (1), Wang (1), Rizof (1)
