SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara women's water polo dropped a pair of games to ranked opponents Saturday at the Bronco Invitational. The Broncos (1-9) battled back in the second half against No. 14 Marist (9-3) before falling 18-10. They then lost the day's finale 18-7 to No. 21 Brown (7-3).

VS. MARIST

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• Marist came out of the gate hot, scoring the first two goals and then scoring three in a row after Santa Clara got on the board. The Broncos scored again but the Red Foxes would score twice more and have a 7-2 lead at the end of the first.
• Marist extended its lead to 9-2 early in the second before Santa Clara answered back with two goals of its own. The Red Foxes closed the half with two more tallies and led 11-4 at the break.
• The Broncos rallied to start the third quarter by scoring the first four goals of the second half, the last three by Megan Chambliss, that made it a game at 11-8. Marist had an answer and closed the period with three in a row of its own and led 14-8 after three quarters.
• The Red Foxes kept their run going to start the fourth with the first three goals to build their lead out to 17-8. Santa Clara would cut into that lead with two more goals before the end of the game.

NOTABLE:

• Chambliss Santa Clara's offense with four goals and Mikayla Crowe found the back of the cage twice. Four others scored, including Sydney Maccabe who also added two assists. Six other Broncos called an assist as well. Haley Tassell made seven saves in the game and had two steals.
• Kendell De Beer led the way for Marist with four goals and three assists. Lela McCarroll added three goals as well with Paige Naegle and Samantha Bentley scoring twice each. Seven others scored and five had one assist once to round out the balanced attack. In net, Ines Sanchez had 11 saves.

VS. BROWN

HOW IT HAPPENED: 

• Things started well for Santa Clara as the team jumped out to a 2-1 lead and went back up 3-2 after Brown tied things up. The Bears would go on to score the final three of the period to hold a 5-3 advantage after one.
• Brown made it a 6-0 run with the first three goals of the second before the Broncos got on the board again at 1:36 in the second and the teams went into the half with the Bears on top 8-4.
• Brown created some distance with all five of the third quarter goals to put the Bears on top 13-4 heading to the final quarter.
• The teams exchanged two goals each in the beginning of the fourth before Brown added some late insurance.

NOTABLE:

• Santa Clara got single goals from seven different players with Maccabe adding two assists as well. Hassell also added two assists while making seven saves in the cage.
• Sofia Holman led the offensive attack for Brown with four goals and two assists while four other Bears had two goals each and six had one apiece. Along with Holman, Aubrie Anderson and Samantha Kim contributed two assists with five others have one. Sarah Decker had one save while Somto Okafo ended the game with six blocks.

NEXT UP

• Santa Clara wraps-up the Bronco Invitational tomorrow against Cal State Monterey Bay at 2 p.m.