SANTA CLARA, Calif. – A season of bests begins a new chapter for California Baptist University on Friday at the
Western Water Polo Association Championship. The fourth-seeded Lancers will look to add another moment to their highlight reel from 2016 and achieve another program first at Santa Clara's Sullivan Aquatic Center this weekend.
CBU carries in a No. 15 ranking and 21-9 record, an NCAA-era best (2013-16) for the team, into the tournament. The Lancers have taken a program-best fourth at the WWPA tournament the last two years, but is seeded the highest they have ever been.
Even so, CBU faces a challenge right out of the gate in fifth-seeded host
Santa Clara Friday at 2 p.m. Second-seeded UC San Diego takes on No. 7 Fresno Pacific at 10:30 a.m. Friday and third-seeded Loyola Marymount goes up against sixth-seeded Air Force at 12:15 p.m.
Win or lose, it is impossible to tell what will happen at the WWPAs Saturday, with No. 1 UC Davis playing the lowest-seeded advancing team from Friday at 11:15 a.m. on Saturday, and the two lowest-seeded losing teams playing at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. The other two teams face off in the semifinals at 1 p.m. on Saturday, with the WWPA Championship game taking place Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Lancers defeated Santa Clara, 13-8, in Riverside back on Oct. 28
th, behind a 9-0 start that was fueled by hat tricks from
Jonathan Lotero and
Brent Teraoka. CBU also received two goals from
Elad Gunya and
Tanner Shore and a typical solid game from goalie
Joseph Moorman (14 saves, two steals) in the victory.
Still, Santa Clara cannot be overlooked. It owns a 10-8 lead in the series with CBU and is 6-1 against the Lancers in its home pool.
If CBU should win, it will advance to the WWPA Championship semifinals for the third year in a row and look to reach its first finals. It would just be the latest in a long line of program firsts achieved by the Lancers this season, including their best-ever NCAA record and seed for the WWPAs, first season with two top-10 upset wins, first win over a top-eight team and first top-14 ranking in the NCAA.
For whatever reason, the Lancers have played their best when the games have mattered most and peaked at the WWPA Championships the last two years. In 2015, they upset 14
th-ranked Loyola Marymount, 13-12, in the opener and then fell to No. 9 UC Davis by one goal, 14-13, in the semifinals. CBU also pulled out the first-round upset in 2014 over No. 15 Air Force, 15-12.
Seniors Teraoka and Moorman have led CBU's offense and defense this year. Teraoka has scored a team-high 78 goals and assisted on 22 others. Moorman has 405 saves and 46 steals on the season, while the sophomore Shore has anchored the defense with 75 steals and has a team-high 42 assists to his name.
Gunya (44),
Teddy Forte (38),
Dominick Nevarez (37) balance the offense with each scoring more than 35 goals, while three others have put up more than 20, including Lotero's 26 over his last 15 games.
Logan Mena brings another dimension to the offense, with a program single-season record 66 drawn exclusions already.
