IRVINE, Calif. – When the Collegiate Water Polo Association released its rankings Wednesday afternoon, it painted 16th-ranked California Baptist University as a heavy underdog against No. 8 UC Irvine.
Later that night, the Lancers shook up the NCAA polls by going on the road to upset the Anteaters in Irvine, 9-8. It stands as the highest-ranked Division I team the program has ever defeated. CBU improves to 4-6 heading into its home opener against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Friday at 3 p.m., while UCI falls to 5-3.
"It is definitely a confidence builder," said Coach Kevin Rosa, whose team had already played all of the top-four teams in the NCAA coming into Wednesday. "This is something that can catapult us into playing really good water polo; we knew we were right there. We made the play we needed to make tonight. It's confidence to know we can play with these guys, beat them and finish games when we need to."
It was a defensive battle, with just two goals coming in the fourth quarter. UC Irvine scored first in the period, tying the game at 8-8 with 3:56 to play to break a 5:05 scoring drought. It also brought the Anteaters back from a two-goal deficit.
At the Anteater Aquatics Complex, UCI should have had all the momentum in its favor, but it was certainly all gone 21 seconds later. True freshman Kyle Johnson put the Anteaters on their heels when he drew an ejection with 3:37 to play and allowed Rosa to quickly call timeout.
"We were really playing well, and they were just holding on," Rosa said. "We had a couple opportunities where the ball just didn't go in the cage in the fourth quarter. They were coming back but they weren't on top of the world, they were just clawing and scratching, so we never felt on our heels, we had confidence we were going to make plays when we needed to."
Out of the timeout, the Anteaters defensively focused on the right side of the pool to take away the Lancers' play called during the timeout. Forced to improvise, Teddy Forte moved up into the defense, found a good angle, as a right hander on the left side, and buried a goal from about six meters out on the powerplay.
It put CBU up for good with 3:24 left in regulation. UC Irvine fired off one last shot at a tie, but Joseph Moorman saved it with about 20 seconds left for his 11th block of the game.
Moorman also came away with two steals Wednesday, and was boosted by the offensive play of Tanner Shore and Luke Schuler. Shore did a bit of everything, with four steals, two goals, an assist and two drawn ejections. Schuler had a hand in a third of CBU's goals, as well, with a goal and two assists.
Johnson, Henline, Brent Teraoka, Caleb Rogers and Dominick Nevarez all scored once in the game, as well. Forte added an assist and two drawn ejections to his stat line, while Teraoka chipped in a steal and drew a man advantage, too.
After trading goals early, the Anteaters went on a 3-0 run from there to take the first multi-goal lead of the night, 4-2, in the second quarter.
The Lancers responded with a 3-0 run of their own. Johnson kept made it a one-goal game, 4-3, four minutes before halftime on a 6-on-5 opportunity created by Elad Gunya. Schuler knotted the score going into halftime, and Teraoka scored off a Forte pass 1:17 into the third quarter.
"From beginning to end, it was definitely our best effort all year long," Rosa said. "There was never any big letdown; we were always in it, we were always engaged. It was good to see the ball go in the cage there in the third quarter."
UCI was forced time and again, and did so to tie the score at 6-6 and 7-7 in the final quarter. CBU kept pushing and got goals from Nevarez and Henline in a 33-second span to put the visitors up 8-6 with 2:23 left in the third.
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