SANTA CLARA, Calif. - No. 17 Santa Clara men's water polo dropped their 2026 WCC opener to 18th-ranked UC Davis, 13-8, on Friday at Sullivan Aquatic Center. The Broncos erased an early three-goal deficit to knot the game at halftime, but the Aggies struck for four unanswered goals in the third period to take control.
Santa Clara (8-7, 0-1) struck first on their opening possession of the game with
Ashton Brown logging his first of two goals on the day. UC Davis (9-7, 1-0) answered and would go on to take a two-goal advantage at the end of the first period at 5-3. The Aggies tacked on another goal at the start of the second period to extend the lead to 6-3, but the Broncos rallied with
Luke Baird,
Darion Wang and
Henry Engs each finding the back of the net to tie the game at 6-6 heading into the half. That was as close as SCU would get, however, as the Aggies grabbed firm control of the contest in the third period with four unanswered goals.
Charlie Engs scored a pair of goals himself in the fourth period with his final tally making it a three-score game with 3:40 remaining, but UC Davis scored the final two goals of the day to put the game to rest.
The Broncos will head just up the road to Stanford to take on the No. 1 Cardinal on Saturday, Oct. 10, before returning to conference play Oct. 17-18 with road games against Pepperdine and LMU.
Goals: C. Engs (2), Brown (2), Baird (1), H. Engs (1), Wang (1), van der Schaaf (1).
