Water Polo defeats Santa Clara Broncos at home, will compete in one last WWPA match to determine tournament seed.
No. 17 UCSD men’s water polo team put away a 9–5 upset against No. 16 Santa Clara University this past Thursday, breaking through a 2–2 deadlock and outscoring the Broncos 7–3 in the second half to secure the victory. The Tritons improved to an 11–11 overall record and 4–1 in the Western Water Polo Association, while Santa Clara fell to 9–16 overall and 1–2 in the WWPA.
The Broncos’ redshirt sophomore driver John Raineri hit the target first within 28 seconds of play to put his team at a one-point advantage. UCSD’s junior driver Nick Alexander then responded with two fast goals of his own, ending the first period strongly for the Tritons.
However, the Bronco offense shut down any Triton attempts to score in the second frame. Redshirt sophomore driver DeMarco Orella fired one into the back of the cage to equalize, leaving the teams at 2–2 going into the half.
UCSD rebounded in the third quarter, putting away six shots and limiting Santa Clara to just one to take a massive five-point lead. Senior two-meter Tyler Mancuso found the back of the cage three consecutive times; senior utility Daniel Straub, junior utility Nassim Hmeidan and senior utility Chase Cockerill each put away one.
“I definitely hit some rough patches early in the season with [my] knee injury,” Mancuso told the UCSD Athletics Department. “There was definitely a lot of anxiety about that, but I just came to practice every day and put the work in, and it feels really good to see that work pay off in the end.”
The Broncos attempted to stage a comeback in the fourth, but despite outscoring the Tritons 2–1, Santa Clara could not overcome the deficit, leaving UCSD with a decisive 9–5 win when the final buzzer sounded.
Mancuso notched his fourth hat trick of the season this game, leading the Triton offense with three goals. Alexander followed close behind with two of his own. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Jack Turner held strong in the cage, amassing 11 saves in the game.
“I think we can move forward with having beaten Santa Clara,” Mancuso said. “ I think it’s going to give us that motivation to come back to practice this week and put the work in that we need to beat a solid team, [UC Davis].”
UCSD will close its conference schedule out against UC Davis on Thursday, Nov. 5. The winner of that game will go into the WWPA Championship on Nov. 20 to Nov. 22 as the top seed.
