Cal Maritime Men's Waterpolo on a Roll

The California Maritime men's water polo team has been on a roll since day one. Forty students showed up for tryouts which set the tone early. After selection of the eighteen man roster everyone was ready to work. The first weekend of league play proved to everyone that the Keelhaulers are the team to beat. CMA opened the season playing Cal Berkeley, the Golden Bears have never lost to Cal Maritime. The game was in CMA's control from start to finish, ending in a score of 9-3 with CMA the victors. After beating Stanford in game two with a score of 14-3 CMA geared up for the third game of the day against UC Davis. Giving up 4 early goals CMA had to find a way to fight back. With seconds left in the third quarter Freshman Connor McDonald tied the game at 5. Heading into the fourth and final quarter CMA had all of the momentum on their side and pulled out a win with a score of 8-7. The fourth and final game of the weekend came against Chico State. Over the last few years this has been a great rivalry, so it was not hard for CMA to get pumped up to play. CMA took control early but Chico fought back. This is when Seniors Jason Grosshans and Joe Jimenez stepped up and became great leaders keeping CMA in the game. Chico was pressing hard and down by three when they drew a penalty shot. Freshman goalie Dustin Boren stepped up and made the biggest block of the weekend helping shift the momentum back to CMA. CMA being up by two goals was rewarded a penalty shot of their own with about a minute left to play.

Going into the second week of league play everyone knew what CMA could do. Starting off the weekend they faced Chico State again. Chico came out strong and went ahead early, however CMA never thinks they are beat and fights hard to tie the game in the fourth quarter. CMA converted two penalty shots and blocked one of Chico's penalty shots. 15 seconds left in the game and the score still tied, junior Alex Schamp steels the ball and feeds Sophomore Derek Smith on the counter attack. Smith converts the shot giving CMA the lead with five seconds left in the game. With hardly anytime Chico can't get off a shot giving CMA their second come from behind victory of the year with a score of 7-6.

The next two games CMA faced off against San Jose State and St. Mary's college. CMA was in full control of these games, allowing the bench to get some quality minutes. The scores of these matches were 9-6 against San Jose and 15-12 win over Saint Mary's. In the last game of the weekend CMA faced off against Santa Cruz. Once again CMA went full throttle and scored 3 goals in the first 3 minutes of the game forcing Santa Cruz to take an early timeout. CMA never let up and had their best defensive game of the year. To top it off sophomore Derek Smith had a game he will never forget scoring 8 out of CMA's 13 goals. CMA won with a score of 13-9 capping off league play with an undefeated record 8-0.

Other stand outs for CMA include center defender sophomore Andrew Butler, sophomore attacker Mitchell Kobayashi, senior sprinter Mark Higgins, and junior center Brandon Teepan. The Keelhaulers could not have gotten to this point without every individual working hard to make one team.