The UCSD Men’s Water Polo had a disappointing weekend at the Western Water Polo Association Championships, as the team beat Pomona-Pitzer 11-8 only to be defeated by UC Davis and host Santa Clara University.
Friday’s victory over Pomona-Pitzer brought the Tritons into the WWPA semifinals. The team started strong with goals from John Butler, Jakub Bednarek and Brian Donohoe bringing the score to 3-1 for the second quarter. The Tritons continued to dominate and led by five at halftime.
“We came out and played really well, tried to make a statement early,” sophomore utility Brian Donohoe said. “The 6 on 5 helped but we played average [on the advantage]. We worked the ball really well and had good defense, but we haven’t capitalized on our shooting.”
In the second half, the Sagehens attempted a comeback, but could not close the defecit despite outscoring the Tritons.
The match saw four goals from senior driver Ryan Allred and three from junior driver Graham Saber. Donohoe, leading goal-scorer for UCSD this year with 42 goals, got two goals on Friday, and Bednarek and Butler each contributed a goal. Junior goalkeeper David Morton recorded seven saves.
“The other guys on the team have just done an awesome job of blocking me in shooting situations,” Donohoe said. “I get a lot of my goals on man-up situation and those situations are drawn from other guys on the team. We’ve got over five guys within 10 goals of each other so there is a lot more balance this year…I can’t, as one person, take credit.”
Saturday’s game with Davis was a tough 10-6 loss for the Tritons, with the Aggies beating UCSD for the third time this year. Saber had three goals and Butler added a pair, but it was not enough as the Tritons allowed four goals in the fourth quarter.
“The season isn’t over yet, we do have another game and we really owe it to ourselves to play well, better than today,” Donohoe said. “No one is really happy about the way we played against Davis so tomorrow [Sunday] is a chance for us to salvage what we can out of the season.”
But the Tritons could not come out on top in Sunday’s third place match against Santa Clara, as the Broncos earned a narrow 7-6 win. The Tritons went into halftime down 5-1, but were unable to complete the comeback. Six different Tritons scored, and Morton recorded 8 saves.
Loyola Marymount University won the WWPA championship for the fourth straight year. Since 2000, no team other than LMU and UCSD have taken home a WWPA title.
The Tritons went to 13-13 on the season after the tournament.
Readers can contact Hanna Rahimi at [email protected].
