Oct. 6, 2009

Complete Release in PDF Format

THIS WEEK
at UCI Invitational
Saturday, Oct. 10 - vs. UC Santa Barbara, 12:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 10 - vs. USC or Bucknell, TBA
Sunday, Oct. 11 - Opponents TBA

LAST WEEK
Friday, Oct. 2 - at UC San Diego (L, 7-9)
Saturday, Oct. 3 - at Loyola Marymount (L, 4-8)

NOTES
TO RECAP: UC Davis (9-6, 8-4) lost a pair of Western Water Polo Association road games, falling by two at No. 13 UC San Diego then by an 8-4 final against No. 5 Loyola Marymount... The Aggies led 3-0 after the first three minutes against the Tritons, but fell behind by a 4-3 deficit at halftime... In contrast, UC Davis gave up five unanswered against LMU before outscoring the Lions, 4-3, for the remainder of the game... Freshman Jared Clapham shot 2-for-4 with three drawn exclusions at UCSD... Junior Carlos Martinez picked up two goals, two drawn kickouts and a steal in the loss to Loyola Marymount.

UP NEXT: The 12th-ranked Aggies head to Orange County to compete in the UCI Invitational (formerly listed as the SoCal Invitational)... UC Davis will open with sixth-ranked UC Santa Barbara at 12:30 on Saturday, then take on either No. 3 Southern California or No. 18 Bucknell later that day... Both Saturday games will take place at Corona Del Mar HS in Newport Beach... Like the NorCal Invite at Stanford in September, the UCI Invitational features almost all nationally ranked teams... No. 11 Santa Clara is the only team among the September 30 top 12 not in attendance, while Redlands (receiving votes) is the only unranked team in the field.

UC SANTA BARBARA (7-3) opened at home on Sunday with a 9-8 overtime victory against No. 14 Concordia followed by a 13-5 win over Whittier that afternoon... Sophomore hole set Noah Smith scored eight goals for the day, including five against the Poets... With 26 goals for the year, he overtook junior Milos Golic for the team scoring lead... The Gauchos' relatively sparse 2009 schedule includes a second-place showing at the Triton Invitational and a sixth at the NorCal Invite.

USC (12-1) took down a pair of Mountain Pacific Sports Federation road wins over the weekend, beating No. 4 Cal, 8-6; then dispatching Pacific by a 10-7 final... The Trojans' only setback was a 5-4 loss to UCLA at the NorCal Invite on September 20... USC's roster features J.W. Krumpholz, who won the Peter J. Cutino Award (water polo's equivalent to the Heisman Trophy) last year... He was also a member of the U.S. Olympic squad that captured a silver medal in Beijing in 2008... Senior lefty Justin Rappel, who scored two goals in each win last weekend, leads USC with 24 goals on the season.

BUCKNELL (10-6) posted a 12-11 victory over No. 10 Navy on Saturday, winning on a last-second goal by Beau Caillouette, then lost 12-5 to Princeton a day later... Junior Howie Kalter scored three goals in that win, earning Bison Athlete of the Week... Freshman Brian Barron won CWPA Southern Division Rookie of the Week honors, mostly for his sprinting stats (5-for-6) in the two contests.

HEAD COACH STEVE DOTEN:
"I think playing in the NorCal tournament helped us against Santa Clara. To go down and play at SoCal with all of the top teams, I hope our guys think, `Huh, I've seen this before.' They're more confident and comfortable than they were the first time and they have more experience."

"We try to be who we are. We try to play our style of water polo. Whether it's Stanford or USC, Santa Clara or Santa Barbara, I want to see our guys execute what we talk about. So I definitely think I can use this tournament to see improvement and to see the team continue to learn."

"The mentality of these young guys is that they want to beat Santa Barbara so they can play USC. When I hear them talking, they're looking forward to USC. I like to hear that chatter in the locker room. They want to play against J.W. [Krumpholz], the Olympian. These young guys are like a bunch of puppies who are excited about going to Southern California to play water polo."