DAVIS, Calif. -- For the sixth time in the history of the program, the UC Davis men's water polo team are champions of the Western Water Polo Association.
Logan Anderson scored four goals,
Nir Gross added a hat trick, and Tournament Most Valuable Player
Aaron Wilson made nine saves in net for the No. 11-ranked and top-seeded Aggies, who dethroned reigning conference champion California Baptist by a 14-9 score on Sunday afternoon at Schaal Aquatics Center.
In addition to Wilson's MVP performance, Gross and Anderson were both named to the all-tournament first team, while
Aleix Aznar Beltran earned all-tournament second team honors. Wilson became the fourth Aggie to win WWPA Tournament MVP honors, finishing with 25 saves on the weekend and joining former UC Davis greats Spencer Creed, Spencer Galli, and Jonah Addingtion.
With the win, UC Davis improved to 18-8 overall on the year and earned the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, which will be held at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center on Dec. 4-5 in Los Angeles. The bracket for this year's tournament will be announced later Sunday night on NCAA.com.
The Lancers, who had four players finish with two goals apiece, fell to 20-14 overall.
The Aggies claimed their fourth WWPA title in the last six seasons, winning the league for the first time since 2019 after opting out of the 2020-21 campaign due to the pandemic. UC Davis has now won conference crows in 1996, 1997, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2021.
This year's trip to the NCAA Tournament will be the program's eighth all-time appearance, previously earning berths in 1974 and 1975 in addition to the years mentioned above. The Aggies faced off against Pepperdine in the 2019 tournament in Stockton, Calif., falling to the Waves in a back-and-forth affair by a 15-12 score.
UC Davis needed only 63 seconds to break the scoreless deadlock as Gross scored down low for his first of the day and
Holden Neach followed that up two minutes later with a score for a 2-0 lead. The Lancers clawed one back, but Aznar beltran and Gross closed out the first period with scores for a 4-1 advantage after the first eight minutes.
CBU answered the bell and opened the second quarter with a pair of goals by Hunter Barnett to make it a one-goal contest before Anderson scored his first to stop the bleeding. Zach Lowery found the back to the cage at the 3:18 mark of the quarter to bring the Lancers back to within one, but goals by Neach and
Levi Murtaugh allowed the Aggies to inch away, giving the home team a 7-4 lead at the break.
Both teams traded goals in the third, with Anderson completing the hat trick at the 3:25 mark for the 10-6 lead with one period to play and the Aggies turned away any hopes of a CBU comeback from there.
Will Nomura scored twice in the fourth, while Murtaugh and Anderson each tacked on one more to their respective totals to ice the victory and set off the celebration.
UC Davis held a 35-34 advantage in shots, but hit on 40 percent of its attempts to just 27 for the Lancers. The Aggies also stifled the CBU power play, holding the Lancers to just 3-for-10 with a man advantage and denying a 5-meter attempt in the fourth quarter.
ABOUT UC DAVIS
Centrally located between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, over 700 student-athletes across 25 teams enjoy an unrivaled undergraduate experience at the fifth-ranked public school in the country.
Ranked annually in the nation's top 10 in diversity and students' social mobility, UC Davis and its innovative Aggie EVO System helps student-athletes develop passions, connect with a comprehensive network of alums and industry leaders, gain real-world experience, and thrive as a young professional following a successful launch to full-time employment or graduate school.
