Coming off a 24-8 season last year, the best in school history, this year’s UCSD men’s water polo team looked just as impressive, winning the first 11 of 13 games.
Men’s water polo made waves in the Northern California Tournament this weekend, coming away with two wins against Pacific University and Loyola Marymount University.
“We had a stacked team last year,” senior goalkeeper Jeremy Randall said. “We have a huge learning curve this year because we have many new players. We have to learn how to play together.”
While last year’s team was full of accolades and victories, it fell short of making the NCAA final four by losing to Loyola Marymount University in the Western Water Polo Association Championship. The Triton players and coaches seek to go further this season and into the NCAA tournament.
“I’m kind of surprised how well we’re playing together for having three new starters,” said junior driver Nestor Dordoni, one of a few transfer students on the team. “I feel like we’re going to keep getting better and I’m confident in winning the conference.”
In the first two tournaments of the season, UCSD took care of business, cruising to wins in the Inland Empire Tournament and the Triton Invitational.
In the Triton Invitational Tournament on Sept. 2-3, UCSD took care of business against UC Santa Cruz, 10-4, and UC Santa Barbara, 9-7. They went on to beat No. 14 UC Davis, 13-9, in the semifinals to face the No. 6 Pepperdine University, in a thriller for the championship.
The Waves went up 4-0 early in the first quarter, it took the Tritons almost two quarters to chip away at the lead to tie it at 5-5, but in the last minute of the half, Pepperdine University managed to take the lead by one.
After trading goals in the third period, the Waves took a one-point lead in the fourth quarter. UCSD couldn’t get any offense going until junior utility A.J. Kotanjian scored the tying goal with only 58 seconds remaining in the game to force overtime.
In the first three-minute overtime, Pepperdine University scored first, looking like it would hold off to win the tournament, but again the Tritons put the ball in the back of the net just before the buzzer went off with Lackey’s goal.
After a scoreless second overtime, the two teams faced off in a sudden-death. UCSD won the sudden death sprint but could not connect on its first possession.
It came down to crunch time, with 1 minute, 7 seconds remaining, Casellini made the game-winning goal to give the Tritons the championship.
Over the course of the Inland Empire Tournament on Sept. 16-17, UCSD outscored its opponents 57-18, defeating Whittier College 15-5, No. 15 University of Redlands 9-5, Cal Lutheran University 12-3 and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges 21-5.
It didn’t take the Tritons long to get comfortable with a new roster as many players made contributions, including Lackey, who had 13 goals for the tournament.
On Sept. 15, UCSD experienced its first loss against No. 4 Stanford University in a close game, 8-11, after winning eight consecutive games.
Randall made 18 saves in goal, but it wasn’t enough, as the Cardinal scored three times in the last four minutes. Overall, Stanford improved its season record to 3-0.
“We had a great chance to beat them, but little mistakes cost us the game,” Dordoni said.
UCSD kept building leads while Stanford kept tying it up. With first-period goals by senior utility Jesse Casellini and junior driver Adnan Jerkovic, the Tritons were up 3-1 in the second period.
A couple of Cardinal players scored to tie the game at 3-3, but UCSD once again went up by two on goals by Casellini and senior 2-meter Ty Lackey.
Stanford responded with two goals of its own, including one in the final seconds of the half by senior driver Tyler Drake. After exchanging leads during the third and fourth periods, the game was tied 8-8 with 5:39 remaining.
Freshman utility Janson Wigo scored three goals for the Cardinal to go up for good as Drake added one for safe measure.
“The entire game was close, it was back and forth, back and forth,” Randall said. “They’ve had some weird goals [that aren’t] normal in the game of water polo.”
On Sept. 16 UCSD lost to the top-ranked California team, UC Berkeley, after beating No. 12 UC Irvine in the Northern California Tournament, hosted by Stanford University. The Tritons managed to put together a good run after falling behind 7-2 against the Bears at halftime. After cutting the deficit to two after the third period, UCSD could not close the gap and UC Berkeley held on to win 12-8.
Despite the loss to Cal, the Tritons never relented in their efforts to overcome the formidable Golden Bear squad.
“They had the chance to blow us out, but we just came back,” Randall said. “We even beat them 4-1 in the third quarter.”
The earlier game against UC Irvine was a nail-biter as the Anteaters scored a tying goal with just a couple of minutes left in the game. But Kotanjian and redshirt freshman 2-meter defense Steven Donohoe each scored in overtime for the Triton’s victory.
“Our goal is to win the conference championship,” Randall said. “We’ve already played some of our conference rivals and played well, so I’m confident.”
The good start to the season for the new team has been somewhat of a surprise, but the players hope to get better at working as a unit as the season progresses, Randall said.
The Tritons will continue their season on home turf this week against Loyola Marymount University on Sept. 22.
