October 9, 2023
Warriors Perform Well at the Lancer Joust
By Francisco Claudio
There's one school of thought in sports that prefers to go up against the toughest opponents in order to build experience.
The Westcliff men's water polo team has played some of the more elite programs in southern California up to this point, and that's exactly what they wanted.
Last weekend the Warriors competed in the Lancer Joust and finished with a very respectable result going 2-2 with wins over Concordia and Cuesta College.
The losses were against CBU 19-10, and Biola 17-9.
"With 16 games under our belt and only two of those against NAIA opponents, I think you know, against the higher level of competition we've done really well," head coach Erik Zimmerman shared. "We've played at a higher level and had some respectable scores against some good teams and today was indicative of that as we beat Cuesta in a tight game.
"You're always evaluated as a player and a coach in how you do during close games and we did that."
The Warriors had a very good showing against the Cuesta College Cougars with a narrow victory of 14-13.
Westcliff's Aleksa Sisakovic had a game-high five goals with three steals and an assist.
The winning goal came via Sisakovic with less than a minute to go in the fourth period.
The next day the Warriors faced off against DII Concordia and had a very impressive win, 14-12.
Concordia scored the first goal of the game but the Warriors responded well with two of their own and never stopped applying pressure or slowing down.
The Warriors' Manuel Augusto scored a game-high six goals to lead the way for both teams.
Patrick Zsiros was very active with a game-high five steals that were crucial in the win.
Westcliff shot better during the game with a 52% efficiency which is a point of emphasis for coach Zimmerman.
"We have to shoot from the perimeter with more efficiency because we're less than 40% right now," Zimmerman said. "A good shooting team is north of 60% and that makes a lot of difference."
The Warriors will play again on Friday, October 13th, at Orange Coast College with a start time of 5:40PM.