Box Score
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – After suffering a one-goal loss to Air Force, California Baptist University found itself in the role of underdog when the two rivals met again at the Western Water Polo Association Championship Tournament Friday afternoon.Â
Â
The lowest seed in the tournament, the Lancers, looked anything but. They used a hot shooting day, monstrous performance in goal from
Joseph Moorman and giant early run to upset the third-seeded and 15
th-ranked Falcons 15-12 in the first round of the event hosted at Loyola Marymount. Â
Â
CBU improves to 15-18 this season and ensures itself at least a top-four spot in the WWPA—its best-ever finish in the WWPA—as the victory stands as its first in the conference tournament. The Lancers, who are in their second season in the conference, will be eyeing more than top four going into its WWPA Championship semifinal game Saturday at 11:15 a.m. with top-seeded and sixth-ranked UC San Diego in the NCAA.Â
"Anytime you get a win against Air Force it's great," Coach
Rick Rowland said. "I couldn't be any happier getting into this semifinal game with UC San Diego. I think we match up with them really well, we're excited to play the No. 6 team in the country and No. 1 seed. If we win that game we're in the finals – anything can happen."
Air Force will play in Sunday's fifth-place game against fifth-seed Santa Clara, which suffered a 10-8 loss to No. 4 LMU Friday.
Rowland has dubbed this tournament CBU's "Cinderella March" and a number of Lancers had big performances, with three players logging hat tricks, to complete the first step.
Brent Teraoka finished with a game-high five goals,
Clint Walling fired four shots home and
Cody Wetherbee logged three goals in the Lancers victory.
Eric Carnohan finished with two goals and two assists in the game, as well.
Â
"We just got the right looks and were able to put it away," Teraoka said. "It was an all-team effort, they were dropping and our shooters were hot."To be honest, we're able to win this. We have the personnel to do it. The reason why we call ourselves a Cinderella story is because we got down in the season and now we're getting hot, but I think we've been capable of this the whole time. We just have to look forward to tomorrow and finish it off.
"Just like the offense, CBU's defense was clicking as well – led once again by Moorman. The sophomore registered 20 saves on the day, including 11 in the second half.
"We did a very good job dropping on them and funneling balls into Joey," Rowland said. "He was just a machine going to the ball. He got his hands on everything today, and we worked great as a unit defensively."Â
Â
So while CBU may not enjoy the underdog role, it embraced it whole-heartedly, dubbing itself a "Cinderella story" before playing arguably its best water polo of the season over a 12-minute stretch in the first half.
Â
Wetherbee gave the Lancers an early jolt, scoring two goals in the first four minutes of the game to hold a 2-1 lead, which was built up to 3-1 on a goal from
Eric Carnohan 53 seconds before the first horn.
Â
A 3-0 run marked by two goals from Walling and Teraoka's first tally gave CBU a 6-2 lead with 1:58 to play in the half. Air Force was not intending to let things slip away and pulled within 6-4 before halftime.
Â
When it looked like the Falcons were making a move back into contention, the Lancers put their foot in the ground and scored seven of the first eight goals in the second half, building a giant 13-5 cushion. Teraoka provided the first three goals of the run, while Wetherbee, Walling, Carnohan and
David Ring each chipped in one to give CBU a 13-5 lead with 3:28 left in the third.
"That was a crazy goal run," Moorman said. "As a goalie, it's awesome to see that because it gives you reassurance… It encouraged me to step it up, I had to block some shots, too."
Â
Once again, though, Air Force made a push and climbed all the way back within 13-11 with 2:08 left in regulation. The Falcons were kept from doing more damage by Moorman, who had five saves in the third and six in the fourth quarters, including two blocks on five-meter shots.
Â
Still, nerves were building for the Lancers before Teraoka's fifth and final goal came with 1:01 left to give CBU a comfortable 14-11 edge with 1:01 to play. Walling scored again to effectively end the game with the underdogs holding a 15-11 lead at the 37-second mark. Â
Coming into an even greater challenge Saturday against the Tritons, the Lancers will hope to keep barking at the rest of the conference Saturday.Â
"I kind of like it, going into this season we didn't want to be the underdog or Cinderella, but I think it helped," Moorman said of the underdog tag. "Air Force didn't expect us to come out like that, but we did. … We'll take it and keep grinding."
