The Gauntlet has Begun

By: SID Chase Dodge

Westcliff Water Polo season has officially begun. Men's water polo opened up their season against #5 ranked Long Beach State. The match saw the Warriors battle against a very talented Long Beach State squad. Captain Roberto Barrera recorded 10 saves. Warriors had a new goal scorer emerge within its ranks in this match. Mateja Bosic made his Warrior debut helping the Warriors with 7 total goals for this match. Warriors drop  the match 23-11 but learned valuable information that they will use for the rest of the season.

Standout Performances (Match 1)

Roberto Barrera - 10 Saves

Mateja Bosic - 7 Goals

Andrej Maodus - 2 Goals

Giorgi Khizanishvili - 1 Goal

Giljan Alfano - 1 Goal

Match 2 saw the warriors go up against NCAA DIII #1 ranked Pomona-Pitzer. This match was filled with high intensity with the warriors just within reach the entire game. Warriors drop the match 15-13. Man of the match against Pomona Pitzer goes to Giljan Alfano scoring 9 Goals. Westcliff learned in that moment that they can hang with the best. 

Standout Performances (Match 2)

Roberto Barrera - 2 Saves

Giljan Alfano - 9 Goals

Giorgi Khinzanishvili - 2 Goals

Andrej Maodus - 1 Goal

Shako Khinzanishvili - 1 Goal

Mateja Bosic - 1 Goal

Coaches Notes

"It's an amazing experience being at the Triton Invitational. It is filled with some of the highest level competition of water polo in the United States with UCLA, Long Beach, UCI etc. We performed very well against Long Beach State. We are just in the beginning of our preparation cycle. The team is just starting to gel together as a unit. The first day went very well the boys are starting to get to know each other very well. Tomorrow we will perform better.

The 2nd match was little difficult with officials with 3 of our top players being excluded from the match entirely. We had 5 penalty shots against us. Many exclusions, we were playing with man down. Overall, we played very well against Pomona Pitzer who is a DIII team. They were very good  athletes that won the NCAA DIII Championship last year. The score we lost by 2 which is good all things considered with the officials, exclusions and playing more athletes on my roster. Some of my starters being out, I had to go into my bench. We have very good bench players that stood out for us. They performed very well for us keeping us close in the match. Definitely a good game. 

Players that stood out for these opening two matches. Roberto Barrera as usual was very very good in the cage. He made a lot of stops at crucial points in the match. Super excited about some of the freshman performances Mateja Bosic played very well scored 7 goals against Long Beach State. Another one was Andrej Maodus combined well with Bosic with their chemistry in offense is a deadly combo. Giljan Alfano has stood out scoring 9 goals against Pomona Pitzer.

Lessons from these matches , keep the guys motivated and to continue to develop them throughout the season. The good thing is that coaches and officials were very surprised by our performance. They all said that we are making a huge impact right now at the collegiate water polo level. We had very good goals results against strong teams. Lesson to keep the guys motivated in matches along with keeping their emotions and nerves in check during the match."

Westcliff will finish the weekend still at the Triton Invite.