IRVINE, Calif. - No. 17 Santa Clara men's water polo put forth a great effort, but ultimately came up on the wrong side of a pair of tightly-fought contests against ranked opponents on Saturday at the UC Irvine mini tournament. The Broncos began the day with a 13-10 loss to No. 18 Navy before regrouping and giving No. 8 UC Irvine all they could handle in a rough 14-13 final that came down to the final possession.
Game One - #18 Navy 13, #17 Santa Clara 10
SCU started hot with five goals in the opening quarter and tacked on three more in the second to take a 8-7 lead into the half. That same level of success didn't translate into the second half as Navy held the Broncos scoreless in the third while striking for three goals of their own to gain control of the contest. SCU got a pair of goals back in the fourth, but another three goals for the Midshipmen put the game to rest for good.
Riccardo De Simon led the way for the Broncos with four goals while
Imme van der Schaaf had a hat trick of his own with three goals.
Harrison Labrosse played all 32 minutes in the net, finishing with 10 saves.
Goals: De Simon (4), van der Schaaf (3), Alietti (1) Wisdom (1), Rizof (1)
Game Two - #8 UC Irvine 14, #17 Santa Clara 13
Facing a four-goal deficit at halftime at 8-4, Santa Clara pieced together a furious comeback bid beginning in the third quarter to give the host-Anteaters all they could handle. The Broncos struck for five goals in the third against just two goals allowed to make it a one-score affair at the start of the fourth.
Darion Wang notched a late goal in the waning seconds of the third and
Ashton Brown opened the fourth with another score that tied the match at 10 with 5:26 remaining. UC Irvine struck back with back-to-back goals of their own to regain the two-goal advantage, but both teams traded scores over the final two minutes to keep it close. De Simon had the final score with just 32 seconds remaining to make it 14-13, but unfortunately for the Broncos, that was as close as they would get as Irvine maintained possession to stave off the upset bid.
De Simon once again led the way for SCU with four goals while Brown, Wang and
Jamie De Zwart finished with two goal apiece. Labrosse got the start in the net once again and finished with four saves before turning it over to freshman
Connor Clougherty, who allowed just five goals and made three saves in the second half.
