DAVIS, Calif. — Redshirt junior attacker
Logan Anderson scored a season-high four goals as the No. 7 UC Davis men's water polo team squashed No. 17 Santa Clara University, 14-8, on Thursday afternoon at Schaal Aquatics Center on the UC Davis campus.
"We had some positive contributions from Logan, Aleix and
Andrew Hitchcock, who scored with two big center goals for us," head coach
Daniel Leyson said. "Aaron played well in goal for us. We came away with the win, but we got to do a better job going forward."
With their sixth home win of the season, the Aggies improved to a perfect 6-0 record in WWPA play and boosted their overall record to 13-7.
Anderson's four-goal performance was the second time this season he reached that plateau, going back to Oct. 21 at Biola.
"Logan has trained so well this week," Leyson said. "It really paid off. Today's performance showed what he's capable of. That was a positive for us."
Junior utility
Aleix Aznar Beltran joined Anderson in netting a hat trick, which was his sixth hat trick of the 2022 campaign. Redshirt freshman
Andrew Hitchcock and junior utility
Holden Neach recorded mutli-goal efforts on the afternoon as well.
Redshirt junior goalkeeper
Aaron Wilson earned his 18th start of the season in goal, making 11 saves and collecting one steal.
The Aggies and Broncos began the game evenly, exchanging three goals apiece in the opening eight minutes of action.
A five-goal second period by UC Davis separated themselves from Santa Clara as Anderson completed his hat trick before halftime. The Aggies led 8-5 after two quarters.
The third frame saw the Aggies pad their lead to 11-7 on goals by Aznar Beltran, Anderson, and freshman center
Brody Crouch.
UC Davis put the game away with three more goals and some timely blocks in the fourth and final quarter to ultimately grant the Aggies with a 14-8 victory.
The Aggies were successful five out of seven times when on the power play while the Broncos scored just three times out of nine opportunities when up a man.
Up next on the schedule, UC Davis hosts its senior day and final home game of the season against No. 3 University of the Pacific on Sunday at 12 pm PST. The game will be followed by a UC Davis Alumni game.
