The No. 12 UCSD men’s water polo team went away with a record 3-1 in this weekend’s SoCal Tournament, hosted by Cal State Long Beach, finishing ninth in the 16-team tournament.
The Tritons began the tournament on Saturday against UC Santa Barbara. The No. 8 Gauchos rolled off the first five goals in the match before the Tritons could muster a response. With three minutes remaining, UCSD managed to take two back before the end of the period. At the start of the second the Gauchos scored another two quick goals, but the Tritons put away two more to keep the match within four after the first half.
To start the second half, senior Graham Saber scored his fourth goal to bring the Tritons to within three, but it was the closest the Tritons would come, as the Gauchos scored the next two and held control of the game for the remainder of the quarter.
Senior Lance Curtiss scored a goal in the final quarter with just over seven minutes remaining, with the game ending 14-8 in favor of the Gauchos.
After dropping its opening match, UCSD fell into the loser’s bracket of the SoCal Tournament.
In their second match, the Tritons squared off against Air Force Academy, a team that the Tritons have already defeated 9-4 at home earlier in the year.
The Tritons stormed out to a 2-0 lead, but UCSD gave up five of the next six goals and were looking at a 5-3 deficit early in the game.
The Tritons managed to dig themselves out of the hole to tie the game at 7-7 at halftime. Air Force took a two-goal lead with a quarter left to play.
With the clock winding down, Saber scored. The goal brought the Tritons to within one, as they mounted their comeback. With 50 seconds left junior John Butler scored to tie the match. 50 seconds later, with just five seconds left to play, Saber scored his fourth goal of the quarter to take the game.
In the second day of the tournament, the Tritons faced No. 11 Loyola Marymount – a squad that had already beaten UCSD twice this season.
The Tritons took a 2-0 lead into the second quarter, which they extended by recording four more goals in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter Loyola went on a 3-2 run, but with a five-point lead, the Tritons secured the win.
UCSD played its last game of the tournament against No. 9 UC Davis, narrowly defeating sthe Aggies 11-10.
In a back-and-forth contest, the Tritons went up 4-3 in the first quarter, while the two teams remained deadlocked at the end of the first half.
With four minutes remaining in the third quarter, sophomore Josh Stiling scored his second goal of the game to put the Tritons ahead 8-6, while senior William Brown put two more away before the end of the period to push the game to 10-8.
With one last push in the fourth quarter, UC Davis’ Russell Hampton scored two consecutive goals, but UCSD held onto the lead to take the game.\
The Tritons take ninth place in the 16-team tournament for the second year in a row.
UCSD’s next match is slated for Sunday, Oct. 9 at noon against Cal – who took first place in the SoCal tournament this weekend.
