After losing many key players, including its top scorer and starting goalkeeper, the UCSD men’s water polo team looks completely different than last year’s squad, which finished first place in the West Water Polo Association and third place in the NCAA Division II. Despite their challenges, the Tritons are currently 7-5 for this season, with their next game coming against Loyola Marymont University on Sept. 27.
With only one starter from last season’s team still playing, UCSD is pushing the youth movement: starting a freshman in the goal and a sophomore at the two-meter position.
“We are a very young team that is inexperienced and not battle-tested,” coach Denny Harper said.
The Tritons lost their star player from last year, Ty Lackey, to graduation. Lackey was UCSD’s leading scorer last season and was one of three finalists for the 2006 Peter J. Cutino award, which is awarded to the nation’s best player. The Tritons are also without last year’s conference most valuable player Jesse Casellini and their starting goalkeeper from last season, Jeremy Randall. In addition, the coaches made the decision to red-shirt last season’s starters senior utility A.J. Kotanjian and senior driver Adnan Jerkovic.
“If [Kotanjian and Jerkovic] were playing, we would probably be ranked higher right now,” Harper said.
With all these key players from last season no longer competing for the team, there is more pressure on the remaining players to make up for the lost players, especially sophomore two-meter defender Steven Donohoe, the Tritons’ lone returning starter.
“All he had to do was guard last year,” Harper said of Donohoe. “Now he has to score goals too.”
Harper has his choice of three freshmen in Adam Rule, Mark Stemler and Chris Huffman for the open goalkeeper position. However, after playing 12 games, it is still unclear who will get the spot as the starter in the goal.
“We went with Adam Rule out of Bellarmine Prep for a while but, in his defense, he was a little bit overwhelmed,” Harper said. “The jump from high school to college is huge. We played Mark for most of the [Northern California Tournament], but in any given game, any one of them could be playing and not necessarily for the whole game.”
With their goalkeeper situation in doubt, the Tritons have struggled defensively this season: the team has given up double digits in goals in all of its losses this year.
Despite their defensive woes, the Tritons have played fairly well considering huge changes to their lineup. UCSD started out the season going 2-2 in the Triton Invitational against ranked teams on Sept. 1 and Sept. 2. The Tritons followed that up by posting a 3-1 record in the Inland Empire Tournament on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9, losing 12-10 against host Redlands.
“We played very well against under-ranked teams in the tournament,” Harper said. “We didn’t play very well against Redlands, but you have to give Redlands credit. It was a setback, a wakeup call telling us that we have to continue to train very hard.”
UCSD went 2-2 in the Northern California Tournament in Berkeley on Sept. 15 and Sept. 16 against tough competition. The Tritons opened with a tough 9-6 loss to Cal State Long Beach, following that game up with wins over UC Santa Cruz and University of the Pacific. UCSD ended the tournament with a 13-7 loss to UC Davis.
“Despite going 2-2, we played better water polo,” Harper said. “We had a very good game against Long Beach State. It was the best game for our team defense. The Pacific game was our best game yet. We were a little out of gas for our last game and weren’t able to deal with the number one ranked team in our conference, UC Davis.”
The Tritons are looking for one of their young players to have a breakout season, but so far that has not happened.
“We’re playing okay and that’s with no one really breaking out. We remain hopeful that it’s going to happen,” Harper said.
Sophomore two-meter Daniel Garcia is still more than hopeful about the prospect of seeing a breakout year from some players.
“I expect a really strong finish to the season, getting a lot better as a team,” Garcia said. “There will be some surprises along the way.”
UCSD is ready for more competition in its home game against Loyola Marymount University on Sept. 27.
“We almost always have great games against each other,” Garcia said. “They are going through some changes like we are right now.”
Garcia is confident in the Tritons’ chances of winning against Loyola Marymount University.
“We know each other and have a rivalry,” Garcia said. “We expect a close game but we have better players and a better coach so we should pull the win out.”
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