Keith Wilbur Quotations

We graduated only one starter in Catherine Flynn , but she was our leading goal scorer last year. I don't think we have one player that is going to score like Catherine did last year, but as a team, I think we will be able to fill that void by having several players increase their offensive production.

We like being seeded third. Having the first-round bye will be really important because then we will be more rested going into the second-round game. I do not like to think past our first game, but the path to the championship game is much better as a three seed than as a four or five seed, which is what we have been the past three years.

I don't think we started off as strong as we could have, but we built momentum throughout the game. We didn't score as much on our counterattack, but our half-court offense really came through for us.

This was our first home game this year against a ranked team and having a big crowd really adds energy to the game and our players definitely feed off of that. The student athletes at Santa Clara have a mutual respect for one another so having them all cheering for the team really made us want to play well in front of them.

We are going to push the counter attack even more so than last year, and everybody will get more involved in the half court offense. We do not have one dominant offensive threat, but most everybody on our team has a solid offensive game. The key for us is to find and expose mismatches when we are on offense.

Pacific has a new coach this year and a young team. I'm sure they see this year as somewhat of a rebuilding year, but they play in the strongest conference in college women's water polo, so we are going to expect some good competition from them.

Our first game is a game we should win. This is the first year we can say that.

Our first game against East Bay was early in the year. Both of our teams have improved since then, and playing them at their home pool is a much tougher environment than playing them here. We need to come out and play high intensity water polo right from the start.

Overall, it was a productive weekend. Three games in one day was challenging, but pulling out a close game to start off the day was really good for team confidence and playing UC Santa Barbara will only make us better.

Playing in front of a big crowd always adds to the level of excitement for a home game, and it will definitely help our team. Having fellow student athletes as a part of that crowd will help even more. Our team has a lot of respect for all the athletes at Santa Clara, and having players from every sports team at Santa Clara in attendance is going to be cool. I'm sure it is going to give our team extra incentive to perform well against Princeton and Cal State Monterey Bay.

We had a lot of freshmen who stepped up and played well last season. They now have a year under their belts, so I think we'll improve this year.

We came out strong like we needed to. It's a great game to have under our belts heading into tomorrow's game with UC Davis. The UC Davis game is really big for our team and we're looking forward to it.

Both these players are hard workers and have earned the respect of their teammates. They will do a great job leading this team this year.

You don't know until you've played a few games who is going to step up and do things, but I think we have a lot of offensive talent out there that we're going to utilize in different ways.

Brown is solid team, and they have played a very tough schedule this year. They are much better than their win loss record would indicate, and we expect a good competitive game from them.

The team came out fired up to play Cal State Bernardino and we've always had good games with them in the past. We were up 7-1 at the half and held up the rest of the way. We executed counterattack really well and played really good defense.

Santa Cruz has very good speed this year. The last time we played them, we had a hard time scoring on the counter attack. We expect a similar type game, so we are going to have to play good defense and execute well in our half court offense and 6-on-5 opportunities.

Santa Barbara is a very good team. They are currently ranked No. 10, and more than anything, we will expect them to be really physical. This will be a good opportunity for us to see if we learned and improved upon some things from playing Davis because it will probably be a similar type of game.

Our team was fired up from the get go. They wanted to play well for the seniors. We had a good game plan drawn up from the last time we faced them and we executed it pretty well.

Southern California is the hotbed of water polo. But Northern California has had good water polo for a long time. We don't find too many blue-chip players, but there are a lot of good players who get overlooked.

They are a tough team to play, and they are even tougher to play in a smaller pool like ours. It should be a really good game. Also, it is our last home game of the year, and it is senior day. Even if the weather is not that great, we are hoping for a big crowd to give us that extra edge.

It was a real physical game. We had a tough time scoring but we played good defense throughout the game and our offense came through at the end.

It was a really good game for us. Last year, they beat us in the last match of the year by a goal, so this was a solid win for us. We have a good rivalry going with them and it's always competitive when we face off.

It was a tough game. We came out pretty well in the first quarter and we stuck to our game plan. They got really physical in the second quarter and we didn't match it like we needed to.

It was a tough game. Redlands came out really strong. It was a high-scoring affair, but we were able to win it when it was close, so it was a really positive for this team.

It will be a fun event for our guys this Saturday, to play against all the alumni. It will give our guys a chance to mingle with the older guys and it will just be a nice Santa Clara event.

It's been a great class. Their freshmen year was the first year I got hired at Santa Clara and the program has improved every year they've been here. Hopefully they will finish their careers on a high note at the Western Water Polo Association Championships.

Davis was a tough loss, but we are not going to dwell on it. There are areas we need to improve upon from the Davis game, and we are focusing on those things this week in practice. Having quality games this weekend at Santa Barbara is good for us because it gives us a chance to get right back into it.

It was a big win for our program. We have been working really hard to beat a program of that caliber and it shows that all the hard work has paid off. The strong character of our players really showed up today, especially in overtime when we hung in for the win. Hopefully this is something we can build upon for the future.

It was a good game by our team. It's tough to play so soon after a double overtime victory, so it was important to come out mentally strong and that's what they did.

It was a good game at home. We came out strong and stuck to our game plan. They run a different offense than what we are accustomed to seeing, but we did a good job defending it.

It was a good effort for a second game. Pacific played really hard and I think the best of our team really came out to play in the second half. It was a good overall day.

It was a good all-around game for our team. It was good to play a lot of different people. After yesterday's difficult loss, the team responded well and came out strong this afternoon.

It was a good showing by the alumni. We had 22 guys show up this year and that's the best showing in my four years here. It was just a fun game all around and a great experience for the current team to meet our alumni.

It was a big first game for us. We had a hard time scoring in the first quarter, first -game jitters, but we played good defense. We are happy we won the first game and we are looking forward to tomorrow's match.

In both games, I think we came out strong and played good defense. We did a better job finishing up our games, which was nice to see from the team.

The game against Air Force was tough. They jumped out on us from the beginning and it was tough to come back. We battled hard against Pomona and it was good to see. It wasn't the prettiest game, but we did what we needed to do to win. This was a good weekend overall.