ORANGE, Calif. - For the first time this season, the 10th-ranked UC San Diego men's water polo team has won three consecutive games as the Tritons defeated Whittier by a 16-3 score in the Western Water Polo Association tournament semifinal game on Saturday afternoon at Allred Pool. UCSD scored the first nine goals of the game and cruised to the win. "Our performance today was a combination of two things," said head coach
Denny Harper. "First, the guys wanted to get back in the water and rid themselves of the residual from yesterday's game against Redlands. They wanted to play well, like themselves. Secondly, we wanted to establish some momentum going into tomorrow's final. This was one of the most lopsided semifinals I can remember."
Steven Donohoe connected on all five of his shots to score five goals while Sean Cruz, John Butler, Kneif Lohse and Matt Kerchner scored twice each. The Tritons will face No. 8 Loyola Marymount in search for their 15th WWPA title on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. on the Chapman campus.
The Tritons improve to 16-3 this season and have scored 44 goals in their last three games. Also scoring in the game for the Tritons included Sean Roberts, Ryan Allred and Bryce Madsen.
David Morton had 12 saves while Daniel Ramirez also saw action with two saves in the fourth quarter.
UCSD had four different student-athletes score in the first quarter as Roberts, Donohoe, Madsen and Kerchner all scored goals and UCSD had a 4-0 lead after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Donohoe scored his second goal at the 7:38 mark to put UCSD up 5-0. The game would go scoreless until Kerchner scored his second goal at the 4:28 mark for the 6-0 lead. Donohoe, Allred and Cruz rounded out the first-half scoring for UCSD. Whittier scored with :15 remaining before halftime to make the score 9-1 UCSD at the break.
The Tritons added five more goals in the third quarter as Donohoe and Butler scored twice each as UCSD led 14-2 through three.
In the fourth, Cruz and Lohse scored for the Tritons to round out the scoring at 16-3.
The win ties UCSD's largest margin of victory this season, as UCSD defeated Chapman on October 9th by the same 16-3 score.
Earlier in the day, Loyola Marymount defeated Santa Clara in the other semifinal by a 12-7 score. LMU never trailed in the game and pulled away from Santa Clara in the second and third quarters out-scoring the Broncos 6-2 in that time.
WWPA Player of the Year Andy Stevens was solid in goal for the Lions with 14 saves, including eight in the second half.
UCSD is 0-4 against LMU this season. On Sept. 19 at the NorCal Tournament, UCSD dropped a 6-5 game in the closest game between the squads this year. LMU also holds wins against UCSD by scores of 7-4, 10-6 and 11-6.
"One would hope the fifth time is the charm," said Harper. "My sense of our team is that they're relieved to be in the final and I think it's a major accomplishment given what UC Davis, Santa Clara and Air Force brought to the table this year. LMU will clearly be favored tomorrow so there's no pressure on us. We're going to try to do some things differently because we know it can't be business as usual if we expect to win."
In the 2008 WWPA title game, the Tritons dropped a 12-10 decision to LMU as the Lions earned the WWPA's automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.
