Men’s Water Polo ‘mdash; The No. 13 men’s water polo team suffered a disappointing 7-4 loss against bitter rival Loyola Marymount on Sept. 24 at the Coggan Family Aquatic Center. The loss dropped the Tritons’ record to 5-7, while the fifth-ranked Lions improved their record to 8-2. Urged on by a large, enthusiastic home crowd, the Tritons played well defensively, but were plagued by a struggling offense and a few pivotal mistakes that ultimately cost them the game.
‘In the fourth quarter particularly, we missed some real strong opportunities in front of the cage, and we just didn’t shoot well,’ head coach Denny Harper said.
A core challenge facing the team this season will be training somewhat inexperienced players to can step up as shooters, as two of the Tritons’ leading goal scorers from last season graduated last spring.
‘We just made a lot of dumb mistakes,’ senior two-meter defender Steven Donohoe said. ‘One of our biggest problems right now is inexperience ‘mdash; and that’s actually what [Coach Harper] is saying. We’re going to play our best ball towards the end of the season. I’m the only returning starter field player, and that’s tough. But we have to stay positive, take what we can from this game and continue moving forward.’
Held scoreless throughout the first period, UCSD posted neon numbers on the board early in the second quarter, when a Donohoe goal tied the game 1-1. LMU, however, heated up on offense and netted three more goals to close the half with a 4-1 lead.
In a six-on-five opportunity during the third quarter, freshman utility Brian Donohoe scored to bring UCSD within two points, but superior ball movement by the Lions left the Tritons in a 6-2 hole heading into the final period.
With just over six minutes left to play, the Lions extended their lead to five by taking advantage of Triton miscues. Goals by senior Bryce Madsen and Brian Donohoe at 5:55 and 2:34, respectively, cut the Lion lead to three goals. The two late-game points were all the Tritons would manage as LMU held on for a 7-4 win.
Despite coming up short against the Lions offensively, the Tritons played solid defense, holding LMU to seven goals and stripping the Lions of their entry pass during the final minutes of the game.
‘Our six-on-five ‘mdash; our extra man ‘mdash; was not very efficient tonight,’ Harper said. ‘We only made two out of six. I can live with a team that plays really good defense, but what I can’t live with is how we goofed up on some of our six-on-fives. We made passing errors for absolutely no reason. It would be the equivalent of just hitting a tennis ball into the net, even though the shot you just received wasn’t very good. We had too much of that, and that annoys me.’
As a result of being displaced from their home turf at Canyonview Pool, the Tritons have been forced to weather discontinuity at practice ‘mdash; a hardship to which players hope to adjust. This week, UCSD is preparing to host UC Davis on Oct. 2.
‘Davis is always a tough team to play,’ Steven Donohoe said. ‘They usually bring size, speed and strength. It’s a typical conference foe ‘mdash; they get fired up to play us, and they’re going to want to beat us in our pool ‘mdash; or, our surrogate pool. We’re going to have to match that by focusing. We’ve got to get more focused before games, come out confident and play our game. If we play our game, we’ll be good.’
Readers can contact Brianna Lee at [email protected].