UCLA Too Much for Broncos

By Ryan Marshall

The Santa Clara men's water polo team seemed to have caught a break prior to its game against UCLA, but soon realized that was not the case. The Broncos ended up on the short end of a  12-9 score in the non-conference matchup.

The No. 3 Bruins were forced to go through warm-ups and introductions without their swim caps, which had been left in the team vehicle outside of the Sullivan Aquatic Center. Although initially unprepared, UCLA was all business once the game started, and went on to defeat the Broncos.

It was Santa Clara's sixth loss in its last eight contests, but head coach Keith Wilbur was impressed with the way his team played regardless of the end result.

"I liked the way the guys played hard throughout," said Wilbur, who is in his ninth season at the helm. "They never gave up and they were always going after it, which is good."

It was clear early on that UCLA posed a major challenge as Bronco players could be heard commenting on the speed of their opponent during timeouts. But Santa Clara was able to hang with the Bruins in the first half, trailing only six to four at intermission.

The Broncos lost some of their steam in the beginning of the second half  as UCLA opened the third quarter with two quick scores. This appeared to be the turning point in the game, as Santa Clara was faced with a steeper uphill climb.

Senior goalkeeper Michael Wishart, who is fast approaching Santa Clara's all-time career saves record, admitted the differences in the beginning of the second half were some defensive inconsistencies.

"I kind of lost a little bit of focus in the first couple minutes (of the second half)," said Wishart. "We need to (develop) that mentality of just playing to win rather than playing not to lose, especially against teams like UCLA."

Following their short lapse after halftime, the Broncos quickly found themselves trailing 8-4, but still did not display signs of distress.

Battling back for the remainder of the game, Santa Clara showed some poise coming down the stretch. Redshirt sophomore Theo Nasser led the Broncos with three goals on the day and freshman Mark Davis scored twice, both in the second half.

"I just picked my shots," said Davis. "I tried to see where the shot-blocker was and tried to place it in the cage, and it ended up working out well."

Santa Clara had several chances to narrow the deficit late in the game, but the Bruins demonstrated why they are ranked No. 3 in the nation — always finding a way to respond to a Bronco goal with a score of their own.

Cristiano Mirarchi, Paul Reynolds and Jed Springer each tallied two goals for UCLA.

Wishart continued his solid defensive season with 12 saves, but it was not enough against the highly ranked Bruins. The goalkeeper still felt the Broncos made progress as a team, albeit in a losing effort.

"It was great, especially since in the beginning of the season when we played those kinds of teams we hadn't done very well," said Wishart. "Just to be a lot more competitive with (UCLA) is a step in the right direction."

Coach Wilbur also expanded on the defensive effort of Santa Clara, which has shown signs of progression.

"Defensively we did a lot of good things that game to slow them down," said Wilbur. "I still think we made some mistakes that we can learn from, but I think (this game) shows the guys what level they're capable of playing at and gives them some confidence for when we come back to our conference."

Wilbur also looked back on the beginning of the season as a way to assess the progress his team has since made.  

"I thought our team played really well," said Wilbur. "Our second game of the season was against (then No. 2) Cal and that score was 21-3 so our guys have been improving over the course of the season."  

The Broncos will look to reverse their fortunes when they host the annual Rodeo Tournament next weekend, held at the Sullivan Aquatic Center. Santa Clara (11-11) will play a total of five games over the course of the weekend, kicking off the festivities with a match against Brown University (10-5) on Oct. 21 at 5:00 p.m.

Contact Ryan Marshall at rmarshall@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.