WWPA Championship - Sunday Recap
UC DAVIS ENDS LONG TITLE DROUGHT WITH 12-8 WIN OVER UCSD
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Top-seeded and No. 8-ranked UC Davis won wire-to-wire in a 12-8 final to claim its first Western Water Polo Association men's title in 19 years, closing out the Sunday session of the conference championship tournament, hosted at the Sullivan Aquatic Center.
FIFTH PLACE: (6) AIR FORCE 10, (5) SANTA CLARA 9
Junior driver Riley Thomas scored four goals and junior center Garrett Fisk added three more to lift Air Force to a 10-9 victory over host Santa Clara, 10-9, in Sunday's fifth-place game. Freshman utility Mac Carey scored a hat trick to lead the Broncos. It was the first upset of the tournament, as all previous games had gone to the higher seed.
Both teams locked horns in a 3-3 tie through the first quarter and a 4-4 impasse by the 1:26 mark in the second half before Thomas' penalty shot made it 5-4 in favor of the Falcons before the break. Fisk and Thomas added goals in the third frame to extend the AFA lead to 7-4 before SCU battled all the way back to a 7-7 tie. Mac Carey and DeMarco Orella each had a goal and an assist in that comeback run.
Air Force forged ahead to a 9-7 lead, with Santa Clara again answering with back-to-back tallies to equalize at 9-9. Then an illegal timeout sent the Falcons to the five-meter stripe for a penalty shot with just 12 seconds to go. Thomas converted the penalty shot, and goalie Max Benson stopped a Carey attempt on the other end to protect the win.
THIRD PLACE: (3) LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 11, (4) CAL BAPTIST 9
Freshman utility Alex Athimaritis scored four goals, including two that broke a late 9-9 tie, to lead 16th-ranked Loyola Marymount to an 11-9 win over 15th-ranked Cal Baptist in Sunday's third-place game. Sophomore Tanner Shore led the Lancers with three goals while senior Brent Teraoka added two goals and two assists.
LMU's Dayne Jagga and CBU's Shore each scored two goals in a first-quarter shootout that ended with CBU in front with a 5-4 advantage. After that offensive outburst, the game transformed into a defensive standoff beginning with the second frame: Lancer goalie Joseph Moorman protected his cage for four saves in the first four minutes while a Teddy Forte goal extended the margin to 6-4. However, Athimaritis and senior Jon Beck each netted goals for LMU to even the score to 6-6 with 1:15 to go, then the Lion five-man defense held off a power play to lock to two teams as they went to the break.
Both squads traded goals throughout the third quarter, with a Cory McGee launch from the perimeter evening the score at 9-9 just under the two-minute mark. Neither team could find the back of the net in the fourth until Athimaraitis buried a shot from the 3/4 spot to boost LMU to a 10-9 lead with 2:38 remaining in regulation. Athimaraitis later came up with a big field block against Teraoka with 50 ticks left on the clock, then delivered another goal from set to extend the Lion advantage to two goals at 0:34.
CHAMPIONSHIP: (1) UC DAVIS 12, (2) UC SAN DIEGO 8
Sophomore center-defender Riley Venne scored three goals while sophomore lefty attacker Ido Goldschmidt contributed another two goals and four assists, lifting No. 8 UC Davis to a 12-8 win over No. 14 UC San Diego in the WWPA title game. Junior Arman Momdzhyan hit four goals for the Tritons while sophomore Kevin Asplund added three more.
Junior utility Cory Laidig and senior center and captain Tennyson May also had two goals for the Aggies. UC Davis never trailed in the contest, taking a 3-0 lead on goals by Laidig, Venne and sophomore Marcus Anderson, then extending the advantage to 6-1 by the three-minute mark of the second. The Aggies led 7-2 at the halftime break and 8-3 through three quarters.
The two teams combined for nine goals in the fourth quarter with Momdzhyan and Asplund each scoring to reduce the deficit to three. However, Aggie centers Eric Martel and May responded to each, keeping UC Davis in front until the final minutes. The Aggies largely managed the clock down the stretch to preserve their win.
2016 WWPA TOURNAMENT MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Spencer Creed (Jr), UC Davis
2016 ALL-WWPA TOURNAMENT
FIRST TEAM
Joseph Moorman (Sr.), Cal Baptist
Alex Athimaritis (Fr.), Loyola Marymount
Dominick Beaudine (Jr.), Loyola Marymount
Jack Turner (So.), UC San Diego
Arman Momdzhyan (Jr.), UC San Diego
Cory Laidig (Jr.), UC Davis
Ido Goldschmidt (So.), UC Davis
Spencer Creed (Jr.), UC Davis
SECOND TEAM
David Maes (Sr.), Fresno Pacific
Garrat Johnson (Sr.), Santa Clara
Max Benson (Sr.), Air Force
Brent Teraoka (Sr.), Cal Baptist
Jon Beck (Sr.), Loyola Marymount
Nick Alexander (Sr.), UC San Diego
Tennyson May (Sr.), UC Davis