Polo players ready to plunge into 2009 season
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Sept. 1, 2009) – With more than half their roster returning to the pool from a year ago, and only two seniors, the 2009 Tigers intend to use youth to their advantage as they enter the season. In 2008 Occidental finished the season with 16 victories, the most in the last decade, and posted a 7-3 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) mark, finishing fourth.
Leading the pack in 2009 will be senior captain and goalkeeper Max Kelly who recorded 197 saves in 19 games played last season. His 10.37 saves per game ranked him seventh in the nation among all goalies. Overall the Tigers allowed just nine goals per game, ranking them 17th in the country.
Occidental returns three players who appeared in all 30 games during the 2008 season as well as senior utility player Jake Santelli who played in 28. Santelli scored 18 times, second to junior 2M player Austen Oliver who led the returners with 28 scores, as well as a 2008 team-leading 53 assists and 24 drawn ejections. The sophomore duo of Tai McDermott and Brendan Whitemore also played in each game during his freshman campaign combining to score 22 times. Others playing key factors as they step into new roles this season will be sophomore Richard Dybas and junior Greg Benz.
Also joining the Tigers are a solid core of five freshmen who hail from four different states and will likely make immediate impacts. Each rookie will add depth to the Tigers’ roster with a pair of goalies in Scott Churchman and Kyle Ruether and a trio of attackers in Dan Seagren, Joseph Reynolds and Conrad Fihn.
Entering the new year, a number of factors will dictate the success of the Tigers.
“With a limited roster this season, early conditioning will play a key role in the overall success of this program,” Head Coach Larry Zubrin shared. “We are going to use the pre-season schedule to improve strength and endurance and look to be a major factor in conference play.”
The Tigers will play a 26-game schedule with seven SCIAC contests prior to the Conference Tournament, which will take place Nov. 13-15. Occidental will get its first taste of SCIAC play right off the bat as they face off with the University of Redlands at the Inland Empire Classic in the first game of the season on Saturday, Sept. 12.
Occidental will host the first of its six home contests at Taylor Pool on Thursday, Oct. 8 in a non-conference game. The Tigers will play four of their seven first round SCIAC games at home and will look to make good use of “home pool” advantage during those games. The first conference home game will be on Oct. 24 against Pomona-Pitzer, the two-time defending SCIAC champions. Oxy will also host the University of La Verne (Oct. 28), Cal Lutheran (Oct. 28) and Whittier (Nov. 7).
With an extremely competitive conference schedule, everyone in the league is sure to be challenged, with a number of schools in the hunt to win the SCIAC crown in 2009.
“On the surface we may look like a re-building team with a smaller roster size, but the mental make-up of this group of guys, their camaraderie, work ethic and talent, will make us very competitive,” Zubrin shared. “We are attacking this season like any other with our ultimate goal to win a SCIAC title. I expect that we will be a legitimate contender when it counts at the conference tournament.”
