LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego men's water polo standout
Vedran Latkovic has been named the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Player of the Week. The announcement was made Wednesday by the conference.
A redshirt junior from Kotor, Montenegro, Latkovic helped the ninth-ranked Tritons to a 3-2 record last week by scoring 12 goals to go along with three assists for 15 total points.
Latkovic provided the highlight of the season thus far against No. 17 Loyola Marymount at home in front of over 900 fans. Tied 13-13,
Karlo Krmek found Latkovic on the left side, about six meters from the net. With only 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Latkovic launched an off-speed lob just before the shot clock expired. The ball spun past several outstretched arms and a lunging LMU goalkeeper, finding a home in the bottom right corner of the net for the game-winner. It was his fifth goal and sixth point of the night.
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Against No. 11 San Jose State at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Invitational in Berkeley, Latkovic found the back of the net six times, the most goals by a Triton in a single game this season.
Also at the tourney, he scored once against No. 13 UC Irvine and recorded two assists vs. No. 8 UC Davis.
Latkovic is now tied for the team lead with 31 goals on the season.
He is the first Triton to be named the WWPA Player of the Week in 2021.
The Tritons, who are 9-5 overall and 2-0 in the WWPA, play just once this week as they travel to Air Force in Colorado for a conference contest on Friday, Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. The match can be followed with
live stats.
For the team's complete 2021 schedule,
click here.
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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
