NCAA water polo results: Air Force loses to UC-San Diego, 10-9

The No. 13 ranked Air Force Falcons had a real chance to upset No. 11 UC San Diego Tritons, but UCSD was without leading scorer Josh Stiling, on the year Stiling had 49 goals.. The game was very exciting game, and a back-and-forth contest, but the Falcons came up short and lost 10-9.

Air Force was led by Andrew Hamilton and Garrett Womack each tallied three goals, the loss dropped the Falcons record to 8-7 overall on the season and 7-3 in the WWPA. This was the third loss for Air Force against UCSD.

The game started off with Air Force scoring on a power play goal by Josh Steadman midway through the first period, but UCSD responde on their next possession to quickly to the game at one goal. The teams exchanged goals with Air Force tying the game at two when Hamilton scored his first goal of the game with 25 seconds left in the first period.

UCSD was able to create a cushion in the second quarter as they took a 6-4 lead at the break, and they proceeded to extend their lead 7-4 by scoring the first goal in the period. San Diego had multiple shots to extend their lead, but Falcons goalie Mike Fish came up big.

Air Force came back to make it a one-goal game multiple times, but they were unable to tie the game in the third or fourth quarter. The one odd item in the game with 37 seconds left where UCSD was awarded a penalty shot, but instead of taking the 5-meter attempt. They elected to take possession of the ball so that they could run down the 30-second shot clock down to just seven seconds. Air Force had no timeouts, so there would be little chance for the Falcons to get the ball down the pool and get a clean shot in seven seconds.

Here is UCSD head coach Denny Harper talking about the game: