The University of Redlands men's water polo team continued to live up to its high expectations, winning three of the four games it played at the UC Santa Cruz Slugfest at UC Santa Cruz from Sept. 27-28.

Carrying a No. 16 ranking in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Varsity Top 20, the Bulldogs faced a full slate of tough opponents.

On Saturday, the team faced off against UC Davis, losing to the Aggies by a 12-7 final. Rebounding from a loss against the highest-ranked team in the invitational, the Bulldogs downed the host, UC Santa Cruz, later that day by a score of 14-7.

Carrying the momentum from the win against the Banana Slugs, Redlands edged a 13th-ranked Santa Clara University team 9-8. For the second time this season, the Bulldogs got the best of the U.S. Air Force Academy, winning 10-8.

Junior center Brendan Meaney (Palm Desert, CA) paced the Bulldog goal scorers with 11 total on the weekend while senior driver Andrew Becskehazy (Miami, FL) and junior utility player Jim Kehrig (Danville, CA) notched six and five goals, respectively.

Also scoring for Redlands was sophomore defender Andrew Smith-Jones (Annapolis, MD) with four goals, sophomore center Miran Terzic (Palm Desert, CA) and junior utility player Ryan Floersch (San Jose, CA) with three goals, junior driver Brent Dotters (Porterville, CA), junior defender John Floersch (San Jose, CA) and senior utility player Buddy Olds (Murrieta, CA) with two goals and junior driver Taylor Swyers (St. Louis, MO) and junior utility player Ian Starkie (Arroyo Grande, CA) with one goal.

In goal, junior goalkeeper Jack Amaral (Porterville, CA) stopped a team-high 24 shots while senior goalkeeper Teddy Trowbridge (Mercer Island, WA) recorded 10 saves.

On Oct. 3, the Bulldogs travel to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges to compete in the two-day Claremont Convergence. Redlands is scheduled to play Iona College (NY), Johns Hopkins University (MD), Concordia University and Fordham University (NY).