LA JOLLA, Calif. - The 14th-ranked UCSD men’s water polo team heads to Berkeley this weekend to take part in the Northern California Tournament. The Tritons have been placed in Bracket A with No. 1 USC, No. 9 Long Beach, and UC Santa Cruz. UCSD’s first game will be against the 49ers at 9:20 a.m. on Saturday at the Bill Brown Aquatics Center on the Miramonte High School campus.
Long Beach State is 4-0 on the season thus far, scoring at least double-digit goals in each game and racking up an average margin of victory of 12 goals. The 49ers last victories were a 19-5 win over Pomona-Pitzer and a 22-3 romp at La Verne on September 9. Reid Tomassi led The Beach in the first game with a career-high 7 goals, while Justin Koeppen and Jeff Greenwood each scored four times against La Verne. Greenwood leads the team on the season with 16 goals in 23 attempts. Steve MacKenzie is the leading goalkeeper on the season with 13 saves and a 3.33 goals against average. The Tritons and 49ers met one time last season with UCSD downing 15th-ranked Long Beach State by a score of 9-8. UCSD trailed 7-5 entering the final period and would climb back to a one goal margin, 8-7, with under four minutes to play. Two goals in a 22 second with less than 90 seconds to play would be the deciding factor in the contest. Steven Donohoe and Ben Miller each scored for UCSD.
USC is coming off a 9-4 win in their season-opener at home against Loyola Marymount. Shea Buckner led the way in his Trojan debut with four goals, including two in the first period, as USC extended their home winning streak to 23 games. Justin Rappel also scored twice, while goalkeeper Adam Shilling had 8 saves in preserving the lead. UCSD met USC once last season during the Southern California Tournament in Los Angeles. The Tritons nearly upset the top-ranked and defending national champion Trojans, falling short by a 10-9 final score despite a 3-2 margin in UCSD’s favor during the final period of play.
UC Santa Cruz, the defending DIII National Champions, enter the tournament with a 1-2 overall record. UCSC lost their first two matches of the season-opening MIT Tournament to host MIT and Harvard by scores of 9-13 and 4-9, respectively. The Banana Slugs would rebound with their first win of the season on the second day of the tournament, defeating Connecticut College by a score of 23-3. The Slugs would set the tempo with a 7-0 lead after the first quarter of play and coasted to an easy victory. Devon Allred led all scorers with four goals, while Matt Bischl and Grant Shubin each added three. UCSD faced WWPA foe UC Santa Cruz twice last season. The first game resulted in a 10-4 season opening win for the Tritons with Curtis Williamson scoring twice in the win. The two teams would meet again in the first round of the WWPA Tournament. Again UCSD picked up the victory, 13-9, en route to their 14th WWPA Championship.
At last year’s Northern California Tournament in Stanford, the Tritons won 3-of-4 matches by a combined four goals to finish fifth in the tournament. UCSD’s first game of the tournament resulted in a 10-8 overtime win against 12th-ranked UC Irvine. Sophomore Steven Donohoe scored one of the two overtime goals in the victory. The Tritons would lose their second match of the day, 12-8, to top-ranked and eventual national California. The Tritons rebounded the next day with a 12-11 win over 9th-ranked Pacific as senior Curtis Williamson scored the winning goal with 1:30 left in the game. In the fifth-place game, UCSD defeated WWPA rival 7th-ranked Loyola Marymount University by a 9-8 final score, with sophomore Daniel Garcia scoring three times.
UCSD’s next opponent will be determined by the outcome of their game against the 49ers, as well as the outcome of the USC-UC Santa Cruz match-up. The winners of those two contests will meet at the Bill Brown Aquatics Center at 2:40 p.m., while the losers of those two matches will meet at 1:20 p.m. The tournament will conclude on Sunday. Following this weekend’s tournament, the Tritons will return home to host 12th-ranked Loyola Marymount on Thursday at 6 p.m. UCSD heads back out on the road Saturday for games against WWPA opponents Claremont and Pomona-Pitzer.
Courtesy: Jimmy Gekas/Sideline Studios