University Southern California Trojans
USC
UC Santa Barbara
Two SoCal Wins Earn USC Semifinal Rematch With UCLA
October 10, 2009 | Men's Water Polo
Oct. 10, 2009
IRVINE, CALIF. - The No. 3 USC men's water polo team grabbed two dominating wins to kick off this year's SoCal tournament, taking out Bucknell 21-4 and UC Santa Barbara 17-3 to earn a semifinal slot at the UCI Invitational. The winners of the past six SoCal tournaments, the No. 3 ranked Trojans now hold a 14-1 overall record on the season. USC will go up against No. 2 UCLA in tomorrow's semifinal in a rematch of an earlier semifinal clash at the NorCal Tournament, which accounted for USC's only loss of the year. The Trojans face the Bruins tomorrow (Oct. 11) in the semis at 12 p.m. at UC Irvine.
USC opened the day with a high-powered offensive onslaught against No. 17 Bucknell. On the hands of 15 different scorers, the Trojans tallied a season-high 21 goals against the Bisons, while the defense allowed just four goals - just one coming in the second half. Kyle Wootten and Billy Evashwick came away with their first career goals as Trojans in the win, while six different Trojans finished with two-goal games to lead the charge for USC. Wootten was won of those multiple-goal scorers in the match, joined by Peter Kurzeka, Shea Buckner, Brian Boswell, Jordan Thompson and Michael Rosenthal. USC has up 6-2 in the first period and then slammed in eight goals in the second to climb ahead 14-3 by halftime. Bucknell would get just one goal through in the second half of play, while USC punched in two in the third and five more in the fourth to close things out on a 21-4 USC win. Joel Dennerley and Brett Giery split time in the cage with Dennerley getting two saves and Giery going in the second half and getting eight saves.
That victory put USC up against No. 6 UC Santa Barbara later in the day. Again, the widespread scoring threat of the Trojans caused trouble for their opponent, while the defense stayed stingy on the other end. For just the second time this season, USC had one player pass the three-goal mark on the day. J.W. Krumpholz was the first to do it with a five-goal outing against Princeton yesterday, and today Shea Buckner blasted four goals to lead the USC scoring effort against the Gauchos. Eleven Trojans got in on the scoring -- including Stephen Lim's first career goal -- in USC's evening game as the Trojans left UCSB in the dust. USC got ahead 11-2 by halftime and again allowed just a single second-half score while continuing to tack up scores to balloon the Trojan lead to a 17-3 final. Dennerley was in the cage in the first half of play, registering six saves for USC, and Will Simon took over in the second half and tallied four saves in the win.
The winning day takes USC to the semifinals for a rematch with UCLA at 12 p.m. on Sunday (Oct. 11). The UCI Invitational championship game is set for 5:20 p.m. that afternoon at Anteater Pool in Irvine, Calif.
2009 UCI Invitational - Day One
#3 USC 21, #17 Bucknell 4
USC 6 - 8 - 2 - 5 = 21
BUCK 2 - 1 - 0 - 1 = 4
SCORING:
USC - Peter Kurzeka 2, Shea Buckner 2, Kyle Wootten 2, Brian Boswell 2, Jordan Thompson 2, Michael Rosenthal 2, Justin Rappel, J.W. Krumpholz, Anthony Artukovich, Matt Sagehorn, Matthew Burton, Kyle Sterling, Devon Borisoff, Zayne Belal, Billy Evashwick.
BUCK - Randy Ang, Nick Barnett, Richie Hyden, Sean Coghlan.
SAVES: Joel Dennerley (USC) 2, Brett Giery (USC) 8, Nick Donahue (B) 3, Matt Napleton (B) 3, Miles Gilhuly (B) 1.
#3 USC 17, #6 UC Santa Barbara 3
USC 4 - 7 - 5 - 1 = 17
UCSB 1 - 1 - 0 - 1 = 3
SCORING:
USC - Shea Buckner 4, Matt Sagehorn 2, Kyle Sterling 2, Jordan Thompson 2, Michael Rosenthal, Stephen Lim, Peter Kurzeka, Matthew Burton, Nico Sardo, Devon Borisoff, Kyle Wootten.
UCSB - Stefan Partelow, Noah Smith, Ryen Flint.
SAVES: Joel Dennerley (USC) 6, Will Simon (USC) 4, Fraser Bunn (UCSB) 4, Myles Christian (UCSB) 2.
