La Verne earns No. 1 seed in tournament
Campus Times
November 13, 1998
La Verne's Water Polo team played a dominating game against Occidental
on Saturday, Nov. 7. Junior Caleb Diaz (#2) looks for an open shot on Occidental's
goal. The Leopards won, 13-2.
The unbelievably successful first-year University of La Verne men's
water polo team ended its regular season on a good note Saturday, by defeating
the Occidental Tigers, 13-3, earning the Leopards the No. 1 seed in the
SCIAC tournament, which begins today.
"I think we worked really well together as a team, and our defense
was our key as far as shutting them [Occidental] down," said junior
Corey Rodriguez. "Having our last home game, we weren't about to lose,
and we had to finish with a bang."
The Leopards exploded offensively in the first half, when they scored
six goals to the Tigers' meager two.
"We are totally turning heads as far as coming in as a first-year
team, doing as well as we are doing, and all the guys are stoked about it
and coach [Tim Hugar] is stoked about it," said junior Shannon Kay.
La Verne's scoring opportunities came from its pressing defense, which
caused Occidental to turnover the ball while in an over-pursuing attack
formation.
"We were playing a press [defense], then when the ball was set,
we would drop off to four and five-which are the wings and flats,"
said freshman Jace Crispin.
In fact, the Leopards defense committed grand larceny, as it stole the
ball 16 times.
The leader of ULV's ball bandits was junior Kenny Clements, who had
seven steals. The other impressive ball-thieving performance came courtesy
of sophomore Ian Gratz, who had five steals.
"We would steal the ball from the whole set, and as we would steal
it, the top people, which would be the flat-point and flat, we would take
off on offense, and we would have a three-on-two counter attack," said
Crispin.
The Leopards who were responsible for putting points on the scoreboard
were junior Caleb Diaz and junior Ryan Penrod (both with four goals), Crispin
(three goals), and freshman Rey Lopez and Clements (both with a goal a piece).
"If we produce the offense we know how to produce, than we are
going to go all the way [to the NCAA championships]," said Rodriguez.
La Verne continued its dominance in the second half, by scoring five
more times and holding the Tigers to a single goal over the final two periods.
"It [the Occidental win] helps momentum-wise, but you don't want
to write anybody off," said Kay. "We were mostly concentrating
on the tough teams we are going to face this weekend and kind of using Oxy
as a building point on there."
The conference championships are tomorrow, and the Leopards are focusing
on knocking off the teams they had so handily defeated during the regular
season.
"The types of practices we have, is we go all out and sometimes
the coach will have to tell us to mellow out because he doesn't want us
to hurt each other," said Rodriguez.
In preparation for the conference championships, ULV needs to work on
its ball side drives and defense, Crispin said.
La Verne's nearly unblemished SCIAC record is 5-1, which is simply impressive
for its inaugural season.
The only loss suffered by the Leopards came to Redlands, a team that
it has beaten twice this season. In fact, ULV played all three of the Redlands
games at the Bulldogs pool.
It is no small feat for a team, especially in its first season, to win
more than half of the games against the same team on the road.
"We have come together like no other team I've been on," said
Rodriguez.
"I think everybody is proud of what we have done, and the school
is behind us and that is awesome," said Kay.
On top of its current success, the Leopards are physically peaking and
look to sweep its conference championship games in route to the University's
first water polo championship title.
What is more important for La Verne is that it is ranked seventh in
the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) and may end up playing top national
teams like the University of San Diego, Air Force and UC Santa Cruz in
the national water polo final four.
The WWPA is an equivalent of regionals for water polo.
"I think this team can beat anyone in the WWPA," said Crispin.
"We are confident in the fact that we are not going to go in cocky,
or go in underestimating anybody or go in intimidated by anybody."
The players are behind their first year head coach Hugar, who has done
a great job.
"Our coach is an incredible guy," said Rodriguez. "He
stands for nothing but good."
Because the Leopards are the No. 1 seed, they do not play until tomorrow
at noon.
