October 16, 2023

WU Battles OCC and UCSD

By Francisco Claudio

The Westcliff men's water polo team played against Orange Coast College and No. 11 ranked UCSD last weekend.

The Warriors came up just short against OCC with a final score of 16-13, and put a good fight in the loss against UCSD 15-7.

"Friday (against OCC) was a tough loss for us, we played a little disconnected, not moving the ball around well," said head coach Erik Zimmerman. "We had questionable shot selections, and as a result we missed numerous opportunities. We did not stop their shooters; it was not a good game for us."

"We had a permanent ejection to one of our starters to start the final period that really hurt us down the stretch. It was not one of our best efforts."

Coach Zimmerman was much more content with the team's performance against DI UCSD.

Westcliff was down early on in the match before they scored their first goal to make it 3-1.

The Warriors were able to apply more pressure and got within one point 5-4 in the second period.

Some highlights for the match is how Warriors' Manuel Augusto and Aleksa Sisakovic had three goals each which was tied for a game-high.

"Saturdays game at UCSD was really a turn around for us," Zimmerman said. "We kept our composure, had our chances and had a few more shots found the cage it would have been a close game; irrespective, I was proud of our team."

The Warriors will stay local for their next match against UCI which will be the last one before they compete in the NAIA Finals.

The match against UCI will be on Wednesday, October 18th, at 6:00PM.