Men's water polo off to a strong start

By Ryan Donough

In one of their few home games this season, the men's water polo team defeated UC Santa Cruz 12-8 on Sunday.

The Broncos have now won five straight matches and elevated their national rank to No. 18.

Head Coach Keith Wilbur said he couldn't be happier with the recent success.

"I think we had a good team at the start, but it takes a little while for a team to mesh and kind of find its identity," Wilbur said. "I think it's just a question of guys playing some games and guys stepping up into bigger roles. Once we did that, we kind of got into a groove, and we are playing well now."

The Broncos are producing wins despite a season-ending injury to All-American Jack Wall, who led the team in scoring last year with 70 goals. Bill Gorin, who was third in scoring last season with 30 goals, is also sitting out the season with a non-injury-related redshirt.

Junior Tommy Hendrickson, redshirt junior Josh Early and senior Tommy Kelly each contributed two goals for the Broncos while redshirt junior Andrew Fitch added four goals in the win.

"Andrew Fitch is playing a much bigger role for us this season and really has been getting involved offensively," Wilbur said.

This win followed a victory over Ponoma-Pitzer, and a sweep of the Convergence Classic with wins over Brown and Cal Lutheran. During this recent string of victories, Early was named the Western Water Polo Association Player of the Week after coming off the bench to score 12 goals in the tournament.

Santa Clara has been led on the offensive side by Hendrickson, Early and sophomore Liam Farrell. Each has had an impressive season so far, with Hendrickson leading the team in goals and assists, contributing 40 and 24, respectively.

Wilbur said that Fitch and Kelly have been outstanding for the Broncos on the defensive end as well.

"Two guys I would probably put in there are Andrew Fitch and Tommy Kelly, who are two good defenders, and coupled with our goalie Rob Callahan, really are the anchors of our defense," he said.

Callahan has been a main reason for many of the team's victories, said Wilbur.

"Our goalie Rob Callahan has probably been the strongest consistent force, and it is nice to know you have a good goalie back there," he added.

According to Wilbur, the team remains intent on winning the conference championships, despite not having Wall and Gorin.

"The goal every year is to win our conference," he said. "As long as we get a decent seed going into our conference championships, we know we have a shot and are capable of beating any team on any given day if we play at our top level."

Contact Ryan Donough at (408) 551-1918 or rdonough@scu.edu.