It is a rarity when an undefeated league season is dubbed a disappointment. But in regards to prior seasons’ outcomes, the 2009 club men’s water polo’s season was not quite what the squad had hoped it would be.
The team went undefeated in the 2007 regular season and placed ninth at nationals, and that was followed by a 2008 one-loss run to nationals where the Ducks placed sixth. But this year, things were a little bit different. The team lost to the Washington in the Northwest regional championship game, and it came as a stinging surprise.
“I’m a junior and after going to nationals two years in a row, with our best run last year, this year was not satisfying really,” said team coordinator Conor Broom. “This was the most talented group of individuals I have seen in a pool, but we just couldn’t pull together when we really needed it.”
The 2009 season started off strong, however, with the Ducks showing no mercy in the first weekend of play on Oct. 3-4 in their home pool. They rolled through Portland, Washington State, Central Washington and Oregon State by a combined margin of 73-19.
Two weeks later, Oregon was back at it in Pullman, again beating Portland and Central Washington by a total margin of 35-6 on Oct. 17.
In Pullman, the Ducks also faced their two toughest opponents of the year in Washington and Western Washington. After an extremely tight contest the men in green and yellow snuck past the Huskies by just one goal (11-10) and then continued to pull out a close victory against the Vikings. That win put the Ducks at a perfect 8-0.
“An undefeated season is nice, but it gives you a false sense of where you are at,” Broom said. “When we got sixth in nationals last year we had one loss to Oregon State which really got us going, it was helpful.” That false sense of security was tested in the first two rounds of regionals on Oct. 24. Oregon beat WSU and followed it up with a close game versus pesky Western Washington that ended in an 8-7 Oregon win.
On the Oct. 25, the Ducks again faced Washington, in the tournament’s championship round, with the winner earning a bid to represent the northwest in Nationals. And for the first time all season, the Ducks allowed an opponent to take the lead on them. Not accustomed to playing from behind, the Ducks couldn’t recover and lost 9-5.
“It is disappointing we didn’t get to go to nationals in Florida because we tried so hard,” said freshman Shea O’Connor.
In regards to the disheartening loss to Washington, Broom said it came down to preparation.
“UW has three coaches and we don’t have one, we are player-run,” he said. “That has benefits and negatives. It could have helped to have had a coach because we weren’t disciplined enough against Washington.”
The only discipline comes from Matt Sillaman and Andrew Del Carlo, the team’s two senior captains. They are the leaders for the Ducks both performance- and club-wise.
“The benefits to having no coaches is that it’s more laid-back on a personal level and has no politics,” O’Connor said. “Del and Matt do a good job. But the negatives are that there is less discipline and we get less respect from refs. The refs just look over at us and see a bunch of kids, no coach.”
Coaches or no coaches, what the Ducks have done in recent years is still impressive. With multiple runs to the regional rounds and a few deeper dives that led to top-10 national rankings, Oregon will look to improve on its solid history in 2010.
“We are a young team, and the next few years look really good for us,” O’Connor said.
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