MEN’S WATER POLO — With their conference opener against chief rival No. 6 Loyola Marymount University quickly approaching, the No. 9 Tritons have good reason to feel optimistic about their chances in the game and the rest of the season. They have started off strong by winning 10 of their first 12 games, their young team is gaining experience and they have a seasoned coach who just earned his 500th career victory.
The biggest reason for confidence, however, is the return of two of UCSD’s best players from two seasons ago: senior driver Adnan Jerkovic and senior utility A.J. Kotanjian. The two seniors redshirted the entire 2007 campaign in order to play for the Tritons in their final season.
“[Jerkovic and Kotanjian] are two of the best in our program,” head coach Denny Harper said. “Everybody else is back with another year of experience.”
As juniors in 2006, Kotanjian and Jerkovic ranked second and third on the team in goals scored, respectively. Jerkovic also led the team in assists with 65. The two seniors continued their steady goal streak early this season, and Jerkovic’s 14 assists on the team’s trip to New Jersey helped him earn Western Water Polo Association player of the week honors.
“It was a great honor and our conference has a lot of teams so it is a pretty huge thing,” Jerkovic said. “If you look at my stats, it’s because other guys are getting open, so I’m proud of our team.”
The Tritons have also had more solid play from their new starting goalkeeper, freshman David Morton. Last season, the Tritons used a trio of hit-or-miss goalies, never settling on one as the undisputed starter.
“The goalie situation is a little more clear this year and we’re getting better goalie play,” Harper said.
UCSD performed well in its early games, the only two losses coming at the hands of No. 8 Cal State Long Beach. The Tritons took three out of four games at the Triton Invitational to start the season, posting wins over No. 16 University of Redlands, No. 12 UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara. The Tritons then went on to sweep five games on their trip to New Jersey.
“Any time you travel to the East Coast, it’s not real easy to win back there,” Harper said. “We were composed and didn’t overreact to the referees.”
UCSD earned a hard-fought victory over No. 20 Princeton University by a score of 11-9 before dominating George Washington University, Iona College and Johns Hopkins University, then closed out the trip with a 9-6 victory over No. 11 Naval Academy.
“Frankly, in the three middle games, we out-swam the other teams and scored goals off of turnovers,” Harper said.
UCSD fared well in the Pacific NorCal Tournament in Stockton on Sept. 20-21, although not as well as they hoped. The Tritons opened the tournament with their second loss to Cal State Long Beach by a score of 10-7 before winning their final three games.
With the addition of seniors Jerkovic and Kotanjian, the Tritons hope to improve on last season’s finish in the WWPA Championships. After suffering a tough 11-10 loss to Air Force Academy in the opening round, UCSD was unable to place in the top four and had to settle for a fifth-place finish.
UCSD is currently ranked second in the WWPA behind Loyola Marymount University, the team the Tritons will face at home on Thursday night and the defending WWPA champions.
“There’s nothing else we expect but a win to show our fans,” Jerkovic said. “LMU is our biggest competition — we’re ranked second behind them [in the WWPA]. They’re the only team standing in our way.”
The Tritons hope their early success will continue as the schedule grows tougher. After facing LMU, they will play Cal State Long Beach for the third time this season and No. 7 UC Irvine.
“I’m not surprised by how we’ve been playing,” Harper said. “I knew we would definitely be improved over last season. We’re stoked about how things have gone so far but we have some tough games ahead of us."
