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Mens Water Polo Takes Third Place for NCAA Championship
December 4, 2006
Coach Denny Harper’s Men’s Water Polo
team concluded a record-setting season by finishing
third at the NCAA Championships last weekend in Los
Angeles. After losing to eventual national titlist
UC Berkeley, 17-7, in the Saturday’s semi-final,
the Tritons bounced back, stopping Navy, 12-8, Sunday
to collect the third place trophy. UCSD finished the
season at 26-6.
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Ty Lackey (Photo / Jimmy Gekas) |
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In Saturday’s semi, the Tritons hung tough
early but were unable to stop a bigger, deeper Cal
team that Harper termed “a juggernaut. The Bears
were up, 5-3, after a frenetically-paced first period.
The last of Cal’s five, scored by Brian Bacharach
at 1:16 with the Bears holding a two-man advantage,
was the watershed point in the game. Coming with his
team up, 4-3, it set off a barrage of six unanswered
goals that put UCSD in a hole from which it would
never recover.
Despite the deficit, Harper’s crew refused
to quit, narrowing the gap to 10-5 at intermission
on goals by senior Jesse Casellini and junior Adi
Jerkovic. Cal came right back with two goals to open
the second half, UCSD answered with a Jerkovic lob
and Casellini’s third score of the afternoon,
again getting within five, but the Bears collected
the final five goals of the contest to win handily.
Casellini scored three and Jerkovic two for UCSD but
the Tritons were just 3-of-11 in man-up situations
while UC Berkeley went 5-for-8.
The Tritons ended their 10th trip to the NCAA
Championships on a positive note, getting five goals
from senior Ty Lackey in the triumph over Navy. Junior
Nestor Dordoni chipped in with three goals as UCSD
went into the half with a 7-5 lead and scored the
first three goals of the second half, two by junior
A.J. Kotanjian. The Midshipmen made a final run, scoring
three straight to make it 10-8 with three minutes
remaining, but Lackey’s final two tallies, both
on the power play, foiled their comeback plans. Senior
Jeremy Randall was solid in the cage, making 12 saves
and coming off the line repeatedly to stifle Navy
advances. Casellini and Lackey were second team all-tournament
choices. |
