No. 13 Air Force hosts No. 17 UC Davis in key WWPA match

The No. 13 ranked Air Force Falcons are back in the pool on Saturday afternoon when they host the No. 17 ranked UC Davis Aggies. This is the second time this year that the two school met it was at the SoCal tournament, the Falcons won that game 12-11.

UC Davis has been struggling as of late by losing five of their last six games, and in their most recent game they fell 17-6 to the UCLA Bruins.

The player that Air Force must watch out for is Chris Richardson who leads the Aggies with 47 goals, and that is 20 more than the next closest player. So, if Air Force can slow down Richardson then they have a good shot of winning this game.

UC Davis head coach Steve Doten discussed their upcoming matchup against Air Force:

"What a great challenge. For me, it's rewarding. This team hasn't been there. They will get to play in a different state, to play at a national academy - this is what the college water polo experience is about. Air Force is a very good team, a much-improved team. It's an indoor pool. It's at altitude. This will be a very important part of the season that they have to deal with, and I think the guys are ready. It's another brick to build our season on."

The altitude could affect the Aggies, because unlike Santa Clara who used their trip last week as a training experience, likely came into town sometime on Friday.This is also the first time that UC Davis has played an out of state game since 2007, and that was also at Air Force for the 2007 WWPA Championships.

This game has huge seeding implications for the WWPA tournament. The WWPA goes by winning percentage as the league does not have a set schedule. Currently, UC Davis and Air Force are in the top four, and the main goal for either team is to not finish fourth place, because that will allow teams avoid Loyola Marymount Lions who are ninth in the nation.