Following a tough semifinal loss, the No. 13 University of Redlands men's water polo team took third at the 2008 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championships on Sunday in Thousand Oaks. With their undefeated mark in the first round of action, the Bulldogs finish second in the overall conference standings, just one point behind conference champion Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.

Despite routing Caltech in the opening round by a score of 23-2, Redlands suffered a heartbreaking 13-11 loss to host Cal Lutheran University in the semifinals, which moved them onto the third-place match against Whittier College. The Bulldogs handily defeated the Poets by a score of 11-5, finishing third in the tournament and second overall.

Against Caltech, Redlands jumped out to an early 7-1 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The Bulldogs scored 12 goals on 13 shots in the opening half. Junior utility player Ian Starkie (Arroyo Grande, CA) led the team with seven goals, as freshman driver Cabot Ferrill (Poway, CA) added four. Junior utility player Matt Adams (Vista, CA), junior driver Taylor Swyers (St. Louis, MO), freshman driver Ben Ballard (Riverside, CA), and freshman driver Jeff Parsons (Newark, CA) each supplied two goals, while senior driver Andrew Becskehazy (Miami, FL), junior utility player Jim Kehrig (Danville, CA), junior center Brendan Meaney (Palm Desert, CA), and senior driver Scott Tsukamoto (Dana Point, CA) rounded out the scoring with one apiece. Junior goalkeeper Jack Amaral (Porterville, CA) provided five saves between the pipes.

Saturday's semifinal match saw a closely contested competition between two quality teams. Redlands gained the edge for only 73 seconds, while Cal Lutheran never led by more than two goals but earned the 13-11 victory over the Bulldogs. Redlands gained four goals from sophomore defender Andrew Smith-Jones (Annapolis, MD) while Meaney added two. Sophomore center Miran Terzic (Mostar, Bosni i Hercegovina), Becskehazy, senior utility player Buddy Olds (Murrieta, CA), junior driver Brent Dotters (Porterville, CA), and senior defender Jon Rielly (Vista, CA) provided one apiece. Senior goalkeeper Teddy Trowbridge (Mercer Island, WA) came up with five saves.

In the third-place match, Redlands earned its first goal in the opening minute and never gave up the lead to Whittier College. The Bulldogs scored five unanswered goals during the third and fourth quarters to put the game out of reach. Becskehazy led the team with four goals while Kehrig came up with three. Smith-Jones scored twice as Olds and junior utility player Ryan Floersch (San Jose, CA) rounded out the Redlands offense. Adams and Amaral split time in goal, tallying three saves each.

With their 26-8 overall record, the Bulldogs look forward to competing in the 2008 Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Championships at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Equipped with the best record in the WWPA at 17-3, Redlands enters the tournament as the fourth seed and takes on fifth-seeded Santa Clara University on Friday at 11:30 a.m.