No. 6 water polo wins WWPA league title to earn a bid to the 2014 national championships. 

Claiming its 17th Western Water Polo Association Championship title, the No. 6 UCSD men’s water polo team cruised to the top of the conference tournament this past weekend with a 15–9 semifinal victory against California Baptist University and a 12–6 finals victory against Loyola Marymount University.

With this championship victory, the Tritons earned a ticket into the 2014 National Collegiate Men’s Water Polo Championship, which will be held at home at Canyonview Aquatics Center. The win against LMU also marked UCSD head coach Denny Harper’s 600th career coaching win. 

“It feels amazing,” senior goalkeeper, co-captain and tournament MVP Cameron Ravanbach told the UCSD Guardian. “We have eight seniors, and it’s just a good way to go out. We still have games coming up, and we’re not done, but it’s an amazing feeling.

On Saturday morning, UCSD faced off against the CBU Lancers after securing a first-round bye as the tournament’s No. 1 seed. The Tritons’ offense took no breaks, as four Triton hat tricks kept the Lancers at bay for the victory. 

However, early on, both squads appeared neck and neck after trading leads in the first frame. A pair of goals from senior utility Matt Michalko and a goal each from fellow senior utilities Josh Stiling and Lukas Syka put the score at 4–3 after the first quarter.

Despite the back-and-forth opening, UCSD asserted its status in the second period with superior play on both ends of the pool. While Ravanbach and the Triton defense shut out the Lancers, UCSD tallied four more scores to close out the half with a 8–3 edge. Michalko found the back of the net for the first Triton hat trick, while Syka, junior utility Chase Cockerill and senior utility Luca De Vivo all tallied a goal each.

The second quarter surge was all the Tritons needed, as UCSD would outscore the Lancers 7–6 in the second half. Stiling, Syka and De Vivo would each complete their own hat tricks in the victory. Ravanbach finished with 12 saves on the day.

“The thing about Cal Baptist is that they only have four solid guys,” Ravanbach said. “They don’t really go deep into their bench. We knew we were just going to swim them, counter them and put our shots away. Our offense did an amazing job.” 

In Sunday’s championship match, the Tritons dominated from start to finish. UCSD came out hot, with a pair of opening goals from Cockerill and senior 2M Joe Dietrich and Cockerill. While the Lions responded with a goal of their own, it would be their only score for the rest of the half. UCSD’s defense performed impressively, even barring an LMU goal after a goalie ejection was issued to the Tritons. 

On the offensive end, the Tritons would put six unanswered goals into the cage to close out the half with a dominating 8–1 lead. 

Amazingly, UCSD would continue to build upon their advantage early in the second half, going up 12–1 in the third quarter after a goal from Syka.

The Lions would finally respond with two goals at the end of the quarter and three more in the final frame, but the Triton lead proved too substantial to overcome. 

“We had the best of both worlds today,” Ravanbach said. “Our offense was on, our defense was phenomenal. It was a really good balance. Everyone did their job.” 

Dietrich finished the game with a hat trick while Cockerill, Higginson and Syka recorded a pair of goals each. Ravanbach turned in 16 saves in the final match, en route to earning the WWPA Tournament MVP award.

“It’s great and I’m grateful, but I’ve got to thank the defense most of all.” Ravanbach said. “They really work on getting the ball in the weaker guys’ hands and forcing the bad shots, which I’m able to easily pull down.” 

Dietrich, Stiling and Ravanbach all earned a spot on the WWPA All-Tournament First Team, while Syka was named to the Second Team. 

UCSD now awaits the national championships, where it will host the country’s best Division-I teams at the Canyonview Aquatics Center pool. However, the Tritons will first host Brown University on Saturday, Nov. 29 in a play-in game that will serve as the final obstacle to the NCAAs finals bracket tournament. If UCSD advances, the blue and gold will play in the finals championship held from Saturday, Dec. 6 through Sunday, Dec. 7.