Oct. 24, 2007

Santa Clara men's water polo team gets back into action this weekend after getting a break with the alumni game this past weekend. They kick off competition Friday, October 26th against conference foe, #10 Loyola-Marymount. Then on Saturday, the Broncos have two games against Chapman and Concordia. Then on Sunday to close out the weekend, the team will take on national powerhouse, #2 California Berkeley.

"[Loyola-Marymount] is a tough team," said head coach Keith Wilbur. "And we beat them last year so I can guarantee you they are fired up for us this year."

Loyola is known for their speed in the pool and Santa Clara will have to work to take away their counterattack opportunities. "We have the speed and the subs to stay with them the whole game," said Wilbur. "Then it's just a matter of executing our half court and our six on fives."

Saturday the Broncos start off with Chapman, who boasts the nations top goal scorer, Alex Mulé. "Last year our strategy was to double team him and make the rest of the team best us," said Wilbur. Santa Clara will most likely employ a similar strategy this year against Chapman.

Then later that day, the team faces off against Concordia, a new addition to the water polo world, but will be no push over. "Concordia is a first year team, but they went out and got experienced junior college players," said Wilbur. "So they are definitely more than just a first year team trying to build a program." Also, this will be the Bronco's third game in two days and Concordia's first, so Santa Clara will have to fight off some fatigue issues that may arise.

Against Cal, the team faces a fast and deep team that is one of the best in the nation. "It's a battle to stop Cal from counterattacking," said Wilbur. "It's a tough game, but when we go in with the mindset that we're going to make them work hard for every goal and run things against them, it really makes us a better team."

The Broncos technically had the past weekend off, just participating in the alumni games, and the week before played just one game against UC Santa Cruz. "It was more of a mental break than anything," said Wilbur. "We still worked hard, if not harder than usual last week in practice." Santa Clara hopes to take that mental rest and parlay it into success this weekend.

	SantaClaraBroncos.com
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