UCSD Water Polo Team 4th at NCAA Championship

The men's water polo team fell to No. 4-seed Princeton 9-7 in the consolation game of the NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship on Sunday at UC Berkeley. The third-seeded Tritons finished in fourth place at the tournament after falling to second-seeded UCLA in the national semifinal on Saturday.

UCSD ends the year at 17-11 overall, the most wins in a season since 2006, the last time the Tritons appeared in the NCAA Championship. UCSD finished fourth for the third time in school history.

Down by two in the fourth quarter, Josh Stiling scored consecutive goals to pull the Tritons even at 7-7 with 3:49 to play. However, Princeton’s Thomas Nelson answered with two scores in the final 94 seconds to hand the Tigers a 9-7 win. The victory marks Princeton’s second third-place finish in the past three years.

“I told the guys yesterday that the only way to feel better after losing to UCLA was to win this third-place game and obviously that didn’t happen,” said UCSD head coach Denny Harper. “We have a lot of student-athletes that are a little bummed out now. But we’ll be alright.”

The Tritons have much to build on as the team will graduate only four seniors this season—Graham Saber, David Morton, William Brown and Matt Kerchner. Morton will leave UCSD as the school’s career leader for saves.

“We’re only losing four seniors. We have some excellent players that we left at home that are redshirts. It’s going to be an opportunity for a few kids to step up,” said Harper. “We do start two freshmen an awful lot. I think of myself as a pretty decent coach but cannot duplicate this type of experience in practice. It’s a good thing—one of the few things that we will be able to take back with us.”

UCSD advanced to the NCAA Championship by virtue of its 15th Western Water Polo Association title. The Tritons downed UC Davis 8-7 on Nov. 20 to earn the WWPA’s automatic berth to the tournament. In the national semifinal Saturday, UCLA downed the Tritons 10-1.

"The issue in this game for us was our frontcourt offense. We just could not generate a lot of offense. We could not get very many quality shots. Obviously, our six on five opportunities, we didn't put those away," said Harper, who doesn't want his players to dwell on the losses in Berkeley.

“To a certain extent, my job is to make sure that this team does not now bury a great season," he said. "It was a great accomplishment to get here, playing in our conference, and we literally play every MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) school. I think getting here is quite an accomplishment and I’m going to have to be reminding them of that.”

Brian Donohoe earned the Elite 89 Award at Friday’s Championship banquet. The honor goes to the participating player with the highest GPA. Donohoe boasts a 3.9 GPA as a history major.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

Sophomore forward Erin Dautremont scored a career-high 27 points to lift the fifth-ranked UC San Diego women’s basketball team to a 92-69 victory over Cal State L.A. in California Collegiate Athletic Association play on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

UCSD’s offense was firing on all cylinders, racking up a season-high 92 points on 52 percent shooting. UCSD improves to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in the CCAA with the win, while Cal State L.A. drops to 3-3 and 1-1 in conference play.

Dautremont was the catalyst, shooting a remarkable 12-of-14 from the field to lead four players in double figures for the Tritons. She also sank all three of her free throws, shattering her previous career mark of 12 points that came in UCSD’s win over Hawaii Pacific on Nov. 18.

The West Hills, CA, native, who also grabbed eight rebounds on the night, scored 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting to stake the Tritons to a big lead in the first half and then added 15 more in the second stanza as UCSD put the game away.

Lauren Freidenberg finished with 18 points and a game-high nine rebounds for the Tritons, while Chelsea Carlisle tallied 17 points, six rebounds, six assists and five steals. Daisy Feder added 12 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Freidenberg converted 8-of-10 shots from the field, while Carlisle shot 7-for-12 and Feder was 2-of-5. The Tritons were 36-for-69 as a team, shooting better than 52 percent for the second consecutive game.

In its California Collegiate Athletic Association opener on Friday, UCSD coasted to a 79-54 triumph over Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson.

UCSD shot 52 percent from the field while holding CSUDH to just 34.5 percent on the other end. The Tritons have now defeated the Toros 16 straight times dating back to the 2004-05 season.

Carlisle scored 14 points for the Tritons, who led by as many as 27 points in the game. The reigning CCAA Player of the Week, Carlisle finished 6-of-8 from the floor and also finished with four rebounds and game-highs of six assists and four steals in just 26 minutes.

Freidenberg added 13 points and four boards, while junior guard Emily Osga finished with 11 points and a pair of rebounds. Freidenberg was 5-of-8 from the floor, while Osga converted 5-of-7 shots.

The Tritons are averaging 84.0 points over their last four games after putting up 74.2 in their first four.

UCSD is on a break this week for final exams and will return to the court on Monday when Cal State San Bernardino pays a visit to La Jolla. Tip-off for the Tritons-Coyotes game is 7 p.m. at RIMAC Arena.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

The UC San Diego men’s basketball team suffered its third straight defeat on Saturday, losing a 49-41 decision to Cal State L.A. at The Eagles Nest in Los Angeles.

The Tritons cut an 11-point deficit down to four with less than two minutes to play, but the Golden Eagles scored the final four points of the game to hold on for the win. Cal State L.A. improves to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in California Collegiate Athletic Association play with the victory, while the loss drops UCSD to 3-4 on the year and 0-3 in conference.

The Triton offense struggled to get going for the second game in a row, with the UCSD starters combining for just 33 points. Tyler McGrath led the way with nine, while James McCann and Justin Brue finished with eight points apiece.

McGrath was just 1-of-6 from the field, but sank 7-of-8 at the free throw line. McCann was 3-for-8 and Brue finished 4-of-6.

Quinton Watkins hit four three-pointers and finished with a game-high 15 points to pace the Golden Eagles.

Neither team shot the ball particularly well as the Golden Eagles finished at just under 34 percent (19-56) from the field and the Tritons shot at a 31 percent (10-32) clip. CSULA hit 4-of-17 from the three-point line, 23.5 percent, while UCSD was 0-for-8 from behind the arc.

A night earlier, Robert Willhite scored 15 points to lead four players in doubles as Cal State Dominguez Hills defeated UC San Diego, 63-53, in Carson.

The Toros led by as many as 20 points in the game. Cal State Dominguez Hills earned its first victory of the year, improving to 1-2 overall and 1-1 in the CCAA.

“In this league you can’t dig holes for yourself on the road in the first half,” head coach Chris Carlson said. “We didn’t do the things we needed to do to be successful and you have to credit Dominguez. They made us pay for every mistake.”

Willhite was the game’s high scorer, finishing 6-of-13 from the field. Brue finished with 12 points to lead UCSD offensively, but he didn’t have much help as no other Triton reached double figures. The junior guard also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, dished out four assists and blocked two shots.  

McCann tallied nine points on 3-of-6 shooting to go with a pair of assists, while MacKenzie McCullough chipped in with eight points off the bench.

The Tritons are on break this week for final exams and return to the court on Sunday for a 1 p.m. nonconference matchup with Dixie State at RIMAC Arena.

—Compiled from press releases issued by the UCSD sports information office