Cruising The Decks - Week 1

USC impressive early, Santa Clara stumbles

Sept. 11, 2007

By Trevor Freeman

Special to CSTV.com


	Trevor Freeman Trevor Freeman covers Water Polo for CSTV.com. E-mail here!

It is our first installment of "Cruising the Decks" and like a group of Chico State students walking into a frat house at 11:00 at night, I am looking to get this party started. A big "thank you" goes out to CSTV for giving me the opportunity to write a weekly column about the great sport of water polo and the underappreciated student-athletes who compete largely in anonymity.

With this column we are going to take a look at the national scene and the results that happen each week. We will maintain a projected Final Four that can change on a week-to-week basis, name a player to watch and take a look at the biggest game of the following week.

Eleven Shots Out Of Set

11. Remember this name: Brian Dudley. He is a 6-foot-5 redshirt freshman from South Africa and looks like he might be Cal's next elite player. Dudley was dominant at the Navy Labor Day Open and seems to have every physical tool necessary to be great.

10. No team wants to get this past weekend into the rearview mirror more than Santa Clara. Nobody is quite sure how the Broncos lost to George Washington on Saturday. Santa Clara looked ugly in both that loss and the loss to Navy later that afternoon at the Princeton Invitational. On Sunday they looked slightly better in a 6-4 loss to Princeton. That being said, Santa Clara doesn't have to worry about playing with the pressure of being ranked 16th in the country anymore. Maybe that will help them get the car out of neutral.

9. The Anteaters of UC Irvine got off to a nice start to the season as they put a real beating on Cal Baptist in their season opener. U.S. National Team member Tim Hutten belongs in the Peter J. Cutino Award discussion. With Colin Mello supporting him from the driver spot, UC Irvine might have the best 1-2 punch in the country. The key will be the supporting cast, especially goalie Matt Garcia. Garcia is a senior who started all 31 games last season. If Garcia can emerge as a top flight keeper then UC-Irvine could be a Final Four sleeper.

8. Let's give it up for the future astrophysicists of America. MIT had a nice run in the MIT Invitational this weekend. In an eye-raising result on Friday night, MIT knocked off UC Santa Cruz, 13-9. They followed that result up on Saturday with two more wins over Connecticut College and Washington & Jefferson College. MIT also played well in games against junior college and club competition over the weekend.

7. If I were to have a "Coach on the Hot Seat" section it would begin with Mike Maroney at the University of the Pacific. You wouldn't have known the Tigers were an MPSF team if you had watched the Navy Labor Day Open. Barely losing to Navy is acceptable but to get completely undressed the way they did by Bucknell isn't.

6. You hate to reevaluate a team after they get off to a 4-0 start, but UCLA's performance against Loyola Marymount in the season opener is causing that. The third-ranked Bruins barely scraped by Loyola Marymount in an ugly 8-6 victory. If the Lions still had Ian Elliott in goal, maybe that result is something you can see happening. However the Lions were breaking in a new goalie in redshirt freshman Andy Stevens. UCLA needs to do better than being tied in the fourth quarter and only winning by two goals (with one of the key fourth-quarter goals being a 5-Meter penalty shot).

5. If there were handicapping odds on NCAA water polo, right now UC Santa Barbara would be the trendy team sitting at 15-to-1 that the smart money would be coming in on. The Gauchos are for real. They looked very impressive in winning the Triton Invitational over Labor Day weekend and currently stand at 8-1 on the season. Miles Price and Ross Sinclair are All-American caliber ballplayers and Wolf Wigo, in a very short time, has established himself as one of the best coaches in college water polo.

4. Buck Me? Buck U! The Bison of Bucknell look to have their best team in ages and should emerge as Navy's biggest challenger for the East's spot in the Final Four. Sitting at 5-1 with their only loss being to Cal 11-7, Bucknell is off to its most impressive start since 1985.

The Bison are led by Jason Rechel, Kyle Roslyn and Cruise favorite Mark "Beef" Masterson (don't worry, we will delve into how I know his nickname from high school in later columns). Jason Rechel might be the most improved player on the East Coast as he has been hanging five-goal games with ease. I was most impressed with his performance in the Pacific game as he had three scintillating tallies in the Bison win. Roslyn is a great facilitator of the action for Bucknell. I would compare him to Mario Elie in basketball. One of those tough-minded guys that you win championships with. Mark Masterson is the star on the team as he was an All-American last year while leading the Bison in goals and points. If you recognize the name it is because his brother Mike Masterson was an All-American at Harvard and is one of the most underrated water polo players to play on the East Coast over the last ten years.

3. There are certain players that you just don't want to guard. For me it was Brian Stahl on UMass. Everytime I would see him barreling towards 2-meters, I would swim the other direction and let one of my teammates pick him up. Michael Sharf of Cal seems to have that effect against just about everybody. Not only was he lighting up every team he saw at the Navy Labor Day Open, but you could see there was genuine trepidation in the eyes of everybody who was trying to cover him. He has spearheaded Cal to an impressive 6-0 start to the season.

2. Early in the season, the CWPA's Southern Division is shaping up to be a lot tougher than the North. Of the best four teams in the East, it looks like the South has three of them in Navy, Bucknell and Princeton. St. Francis is the only team in the North that looks like they have the firepower to stay with those three teams. Brown is probably the second best team in the North and I think in a neutral pool they are four to five goals worse than all three of those Southern teams. Fordham is the team with the most upside in the North as they are fielding a younger squad that has already posted wins over George Washington and Gannon. However, the Rams played all three of those Southern teams over the weekend and lost by an average score of 10-6. That being said, my alma mater has a couple rising stars in freshmen Alex Powell and Ryan Hultman. If they can get last year's first team All-East selection Todd Conway going, watch out.

1. Last season, I would have bet anything that USC was going to repeat as National Champions. Losing to California caught me completely offguard. I think it made them an angry team with something to prove as they beat up Loyola Marymount on Saturday in their season opener. The Trojans extended their home winning streak to 23 straight wins and looked extremely impressive in doing so. The final score was 9-4 but it felt worse. Cal transfer Shea Buckner was a beast in netting four goals.

Player to Watch

Adam Hewko, Pepperdine: I forgot just how filthy Adam Hewko was when I was kicking around which teams I thought had a chance to make a real dent on the national scene. Pepperdine is off to an 8-1 start and Hewko is the catalyst. He is one of those players who has 67 different ways to put the ball in the back of the net. Feel free to just insert Adam Hewko's name now as a first-team All-American. He was outstanding in both the Triton and Inland Empire Invitationals.

Contest To Keep An Eye On

The biggest preseason tournament is always the NorCal Invitational and it takes place this weekend. This year is no exception as the teams converging on Cal include USC, UCLA, Stanford, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC San Diego, Pepperdine, Navy and Long Beach State. Whoever wins this tournament jumps into the No. 1 spot in the nation. What I am keeping an eye on is how UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara fare. Those are two teams that are shaping up to be the dark horses on the national scene.