86.5 F
Davis

Davis, California

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Men’s water polo preview

Teams: No. 10 UC Davis vs. No. 6 Pacific; vs. No. 15 Santa Clara

Records: Aggies, 16-5, (10-1); Tigers, 11-9; Broncos 10-9, (0-3)

Where: Schaal Aquatics Center

When: Friday at 7 p.m.; Sunday at noon

Who to watch: Senior Luke Collins has scored in 11 straight games, the longest current streak by any Aggie.

The El Cajon, Calif. native is currently third on the team in both goals and assists with 23 and 17, respectively.

Did you know? Eleven seems to be the magic number for UC Davis. The Aggies are 12-0 when scoring 11 goals or more in a match, but just 4-5 when failing to reach that mark.

Both Pacific and Santa Clara held UC Davis under 11 scores in their meetings earlier this season, with the Aggies losing to the Tigers and beating the Broncos.

Preview: This is not the time for the Aggies to falter.

Following this week’s matchups UC Davis will not face another competitive opponent until Oct. 22 when it travels to The Rodeo at Santa Clara University.

The Aggies will be looking to enter the layoff with a pair of impressive wins.

Both Pacific and Santa Clara are nationally ranked squads, and while wins could be hard to come by, two victories could have a resounding effect on UC Davis’ season.

The Aggies dropped from No. 9 to No. 10 after going 2-2 last week. A successful weekend would undoubtedly vault them back up the rankings.

While the UC Davis has produced offensive explosions throughout this season, coach Steve Doten has not been pleased with the team’s defensive effort over the past few weeks.

“Our offense is strong and very capable,” he said. “We’re just not playing defense the way we should be. We’re getting kicked out of places we shouldn’t be and it gives [our opponents] easy opportunities.”

With a few extra days of practice this week, UC Davis will be hoping to continue getting better starting Friday.

“It’s a good time point for us to see improvement,” Doten said. “I’m eager to work on the things we need to work on and see how we’ll do against one of the top 10 teams in the country.”

– Trevor Cramer

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