Sept. 22, 2009

THIS WEEK
at Bronco Invitational (Santa Clara, Calif.)
Saturday, Sept. 26 - vs. Cal Lutheran, Noon
Saturday, Sept. 26 - vs. Redlands, 4 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 27 - vs. Whittier, Noon
Sunday, Sept. 27 - at Santa Clara, 4 p.m.

LAST WEEK
at NorCal Invitational (Stanford, Calif.)
Saturday, Sept. 19 - at Stanford (L, 3-16)
Saturday, Sept. 19 - vs. Pacific (W, 11-8)
Sunday, Sept. 20 - vs. Santa Clara (L, 4-9)
Sunday, Sept. 20 - vs. UC San Diego (L, 7-10)

NOTES
LOOKING BACK: UC Davis (5-4, 4-2) outperformed its No. 15 tournament seed by finishing 12th at the NorCal Invitational, hosted by Stanford... The 18th-ranked Aggies posted an 11-8 upset of No. 10 Pacific in Saturday's afternoon contest to move into the 9th-12th contention... UC Davis also suffered its first Western Water Polo Association defeats, falling to No. 12 Santa Clara and No. 18 UC San Diego in Sunday's play...

Junior Cory Lyle was the team's high scorer, talling five goals for the weekend... Freshman Colin Hicks managed four goals, three on five-meter penalty shots in the win over Pacific... Senior Brendan Sigourney drew six exclusions plus three five-meter exclusions while chipping in two goals of his own... Junior Matt Richardson continues to serve as the UC Davis workhorse: he played 88 minutes in four games at the NorCal Invite, tallying a goal and two assists vs. UC San Diego... He leads the team with 18 total points (eight goals, team-best 11 assists), with Lyle close behind at 16 (12 goals, four assists).

UP NEXT: UC Davis returns to conference play with four games at the Bronco Invitational... The Aggies open with Cal Lutheran, follow with a rematch against Redlands, then face Whittier and host SCU on Sunday.

CAL LUTHERAN (2-6) split four games at its own `Cal Lu' Fornia Invitational, falling to both Cal Baptist and Fresno Pacific in overtime games, then defeating the Concordia `B' squad and Whittier... Brothers Brian and Brandon Gross combined for 12 goals in the Kingsmen's Saturday wins... REDLANDS (4-6) took a break from competition after a 2-2 weekend at its own Inland Empire Classic two weeks ago... The Bulldogs regrouped after their 10-9 sudden-victory loss to UC Davis with a 15-12 win over Chapman... Senior center Miran Terzic amassed 12 goals in the four tournament games that weekend...

WHITTIER (4-4) beat Fresno Pacific then lost to Cal Lutheran and Cal Baptist at the `Cal Lu' Fornia Invitational... Junior Jordan Van Norman and senior Alex Perry each had hat tricks in the Poets' 9-3 win against FPU... SANTA CLARA (7-2) placed 10th at the NorCal Invite, posting wins over 14th-ranked Air Force (10-6) and UC Davis (9-4) before dropping an overtime battle with No. 9 Long Beach State... Senior Jack Wall, the reigning WWPA Player of the Week, scored four goals in the loss to the 49ers, following up his hat trick vs. No. 3 California on Saturday... Sophomore James Case netted four goals in the win against Air Force.

HEAD COACH STEVE DOTEN:
"The win over Pacific should give them confidence. There is an old adage that says you start worrying when a coach stops yelling at you. When a coach is barking at you or is demanding, it's because he knows the team has potential. There's a reason I work them hard. I know what they're capable of. When they play at a high level, it's a chance to say, `I told you so.'"

"I think our guys know now that we can compete with teams like UC San Diego and Santa Clara. When we left after the last game, the guys understood the importance of playing all four quarters and not making those mistakes that lead to [opponent's] counterattacks. The hard part is that I want them to be disciplined, but at the same time I want them to be aggressive. We had a counterattack where someone was on our guy. One more pass and we would have had it. If we're on a 6-on-5 and a guy is on the ball, it means someone else is open. So I think we're trying to find that medium between being aggressive and not taking ill-advised shot. I think that will take some time to find it."

"The goal in a tournament is to finish better than your seeding. We accomplished that goal. We did better than we were thought to do. So now we have to bring that confidence to this weekend, stay disciplined and play our team game."

Complete Release in PDF Format

UC Davis Aggies Men's Water Polo

Printer-friendly format	Email this article