WHITTIER, Calif. – All of the four top seeds including No. 1 UC San Diego, No. 2 Loyola Marymount, No. 3 Air Force, and No 4 UC Davis remained intact after the first day of the WWPA Championships bringing into Day 2 some strong match-ups including UC San Diego vs. UC Davis and Loyola Marymount vs. Air Force.
The schedule from Day 1 of the WWPA Championships included:
Game 1 (UC San Diego def. Whittier College 13-6)
The first game on the day pitted the No. 1 seeded Tritons of UC San Diego against the No. 8 seeded Poets of Whittier College and UCSD prevailed 13-6. Triton goalkeeper Cameron Ravanbach made 12 saves, including 10 in the first half to take a slim one-goal lead at 3-2 and stretch it to a 8-3 halftime lead.
Whittier was led by senior Michael Eachus who tallied two goals for the Purple & Gold, while WWPA honorable mention sophomore Goran Mataic was held scoreless for the first time this season. WWPA Player of the Year Josh Stiling finished with three goals as did John Butler. Whittier drops into the consolation bracket and will take on the Broncos of Santa Clara beginning at 9:00am, while UC San Diego moves into the first semi-final of the day against the Aggies of UC Davis beginning at 12:30pm.
Game 2 (UC Davis def. Santa Clara 6-5)
UC Davis came away with the closest game of the day and saw Anders MacCarthy tally the eventual game winner at the 5:12 mark to give the fourth seeded Aggies the one goal victory over the Broncos of Santa Clara. In the lowest scoring affair of the tournament thus far, where a combined 28 saves were made between both goalies (Santa Clara's John Nash – 16, UC Davis' Philip Bates – 12). After one quarter of play the game remained knotted up at 1-1 until seven goals were tallied in the second quarter with UCD holding the 5-4 advantage at the break.
With a defensive standoff ensuing at the start of the third, Santa Clara's Theo Nasser was finally able to break through with the equalizer at the 3:01 mark but UC Davis was able seal the victory with a late goal in the fourth. UC Davis will now face UC San Diego in the first semi-final beginning at 12:30pm, while Santa Clara faces off with host Whittier College at 9:00am.
Game 3 (Loyola Marymount def. Pomona-Pitzer 13-11)
The No. 2 seeded Lions of Loyola Marymount survived a late scare from the No. 7 seeded Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer to escape with a two goal victory to move into the second semi-final against the Falcons of the Air Force Academy.
The first quarter proved to the confounding factor in the Sagehen loss after they gave up seven goals that gave the Lions a cushion late in the game. The game was all tied up 2-2 early and LMU looked like they would run away with the game due to a 5-0 run that extended their lead to 7-2 after one quarter of play. But Pomona-Pitzer recovered tacking on three of the next four goals to pull within three at the half.
The Lions would extend their lead coming out of the break to 12-8 just to see Pomona-Pitzer cut the deficit to two at 12-10 behind a goal from Clayton Hadman with 7:09 to play. Despite numerous opportunities late to even the game up, the Sagehens were unable to capitalize off of late exclusions, watching LMU add an insurance goal with 1:49 to play, which proved to be enough for the Lions to hold on for the two goal victory.
Loyola Marymount enters the second semi-final of the day taking on the Falcons of the Air Force Academy beginning at 2:15pm, while Pomona-Pitzer earns a rematch with SCIAC Champion Claremont-M-S who they lost to in the SCIAC Championship Game. This game is set for 10:45am.
Game 4 (Air Force def. Claremont-M-S 14-6)
In the last game of the WWPA Championships from Day 1, the No. 3 seeded Falcons of Air Force found themselves matched up against the Stags of Claremont-M-S but from start to finish it was all Air Force as they used a 6-0 run en route to the 14-6 victory.
Cruz Smithson finished with a game high five goals, while goalie Michael Fish for Air Force turned away 16 shots by the Stags holding CMS to one of their lowest offensive outputs all season. Fish led a shutout effort in the second quarter helping the Falcons earn a berth in the second semi-final of the day against the Lions of Loyola Marymount beginning at 2:15pm. Claremont-M-S drops into the consolation draw and take on the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer in a match-up that pivots the two SCIAC Championship finalists against each other one more time.
The schedule for Day 2 of the WWPA Championships is as follows:
Game 5 - No. 8 Whittier vs. No. 5 Santa Clara - 9:00 am
Game 6 - No. 7 Pomona-Pitzer vs. No. 6 Claremont-M-S - 10:45 am
Game 7 - No. 1 UC San Diego vs. No. 4 UC Davis - 12:30 pm
Game 8 - No. 2 Loyola Marymount vs. No. 3 Air Force - 2:15 pm
