Women play first championship game

By Margo Consul

The women's water polo team made a big splash this weekend with their first ever appearance in the Western Water Polo Association Tournament's championship game versus Loyola Marymount.

The Broncos finished their regular season in second place after falling 8-4 to seven-time champion the Loyola Lions.

"This was a breakthrough for us to make it to the championship game," head coach Keith Wilbur said.

Loyola earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Women's Water Polo Championship.

Wilbur said the Broncos have slowly made their way up the WWPA's food chain, starting out as the fifth overall seed heading into last year's tournament.

Freshman Marina Allen's goal with 1:48 left in the quarter gave the Broncos their first goal of the game and cut Loyola's lead to 2-1.

In the second quarter, the Lions scored again at 6:35, giving them a two-goal lead.

Santa Clara bounced back quickly after Loyola's third goal of the game as senior Kendal Hildebrand netted a goal 33 seconds later to cut the Lions' lead to 3-2.

"They came out with good energy. They hustled and we got a lot of good stops," said Wilbur of the Lions' attack in the game.

Loyola would get two more past goalkeeper Wren White in the third quarter to make it a 5-2 lead.

With just 3 seconds left in the third quarter, tri-captain Amy Lamb scored her first goal of the afternoon.

Senior tri-captain Claire Linney's 2m shot flew past Loyola goalkeeper Eliana Arellano with 50 seconds left in the third quarter, for the Broncos' final tally of the game.

"If we hit more outside shots, it would have been a closer game," said Wilbur. "If they play hard and do the right thing sometimes the shot goes in, sometimes they don't."

Although Santa Clara finished second in the tourney, there were a lot of firsts during this weekend's tournament.

The Broncos' played their first ever WWPA tournament home game Friday against No. 6 seed Colorado State after Santa Clara earned a first-round bye.

"I thought it was really fun to play in front of a big home crowd, good environment, great tournament and championship game, so it was great experience," Wilbur said of Santa Clara's first time hosting the tournament.

White had a season-high 16 blocks in the Broncos' 8-5 win over Colorado State.

Santa Clara had goals from Allen, Lamb, Hildebrand, Taylor Harkins and a hat trick from Meg Zimmerman.

In the semifinal matchup against No. 2 Cal State Bakersfield, the Broncos fell down 4-1 in the second quarter and went into halftime down 5-3.

Santa Clara fought back and scored four goals in both the third and fourth quarters.

With 1:11 left in the game, junior Jenny Knutson scored her fourth goal of the game to secure the 10-9 comeback victory for Santa Clara.

Knutson's 4 goals were a team-high at the tournament. Zimmerman and Linney followed close behind with 3 goals each.

Despite the loss in the championship game, both Wilbur and the team are happy with their season overall.

"I think every game we played well," Lamb said. "We didn't have any break down games where we didn't do very well, so overall the weekend went really well. It was a good end to the season."

Lamb was the only Santa Clara player named to the WWPA All-Tournament First Team. Linney earned All-Tournament Second Team honors.

"It's amazing. It's always been our goal to be on the top," Linney said. "This is the first year we've ever gotten to do it. We were really happy to make it to the game. Obviously we wanted to win, but it was great to be here and to make it to the (championship) game for the first time."

Linney, Hildebrand, Brianna Anderson and Amy and Allie Lamb played in their last game at Sullivan Aquatic Center, as they will be graduating this year.

"Every year we have a good team. We are graduating a great senior class that's going to be tough to replace," Wilbur said.

"We have good players coming back, so we need to see what happens next year with the new group," he said. "It's kind of exciting. You are going to miss your seniors, but it's exciting with the new group of freshmen coming in."

Contact Margo Consul at (408) 551-1918 or mconsul@scu.edu.