The No. 16 ranked Air Force Falcons will be playing in a packed field at the NorCal Invitational at Stanford on Sept. 15 and 16. This tournament field boasts the top 12 ranked teams in the country, and 15 of the 16 teams are ranked. This will be a huge test for the Falcons to see where they stand nationally.
| Bracket A | Bracket B | Bracket C | Bracket D |
|
USC
Pepperdine
Long Beach St.
Pomona-Pitzer
|
UCLA
Pacific
LMU
Concordia
|
California
UC Irvine
UCSD
Air Force
|
Stanford
UCSB
UC Davis
Santa Clara
|
They did lose to Long Beach State last week, but this time they are facing even tougher competition in their opening round game. In their bracket they are joined by No. 3 ranked Cal, No. 6 Irvine and No. 11 San Diego.
Air Force will be matched up against No. 3 Cal, and that game could get ugly. Cal recently went to the East Coast and roughed up No. 13 Princeton 16-4 at home.
The two players for Air Force to watch against Cal are junior Collin Smith, who has a team-high 19 goals and eight assists on the season, while senior Marin Balarin has added 14 goals and seven assists.
The game against Cal is at 11:50 a.m. MT, and then they will play either Irvine or San Diego, depending on who wins and loses.
For more on Air Force sports head over to Mountain West Connection, and for more water polo news visit The Skip Shot.