Saber Flashes His Scoring Talent for Water Polo Team

The UC San Diego men’s water polo team seems to have its own kind of sabermetrics.

Graham Saber scored 12 goals in the No. 12 Tritons' wins over Pomona Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Saturday afternoon. UCSD beat Pomona Pitzer, 15-4, before taking down CMS, 12-5.

Saber fell two goals short of tying a UCSD school record for goals in a match in the first contest with the Sagehens, scoring seven times. Jason Brown scored nine goals against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Oct. 28, 1989.

As a redshirt junior last year, Saber finished with 31 goals, third-most on the team, and contributed 11 assists and 21 steals. He was named to the WWPA All-Academic Team and to the Excellent level (3.2-3.4 GPAs) of the ACWPC All-Academic Team after finishing the year with a 3.23 GPA. The 5-11 senior from Ranch Santa Fe is an ICA Music major in Warren College.

In the two victories Saturday, senior goalie David Morton stopped 23 shots, increasing his school record to 881 total saves.

Morton broke a 25-year-old school record a week ago, registering his 848th career save against Cal Lutheran on Sept. 4.

Morton passed Duncan Millar’s (1983-85) career tally of 847 with his ninth save of the match in a 15-6 win over CLU, and then added 10 more saves at the Invite.

Morton, like Millar, has appeared in the UCSD single-season top 10 for saves in each of his three seasons at UCSD; Morton’s 296 saves in 2009 are second only to Millar’s 1985 total of 302, while Morton’s 2010 total of 265 saves and 2008 total of 259 saves are eighth-best and ninth-best in Triton single-season history.

In 2010, Morton broke his own UCSD single-match saves record with 21 stops in an 11-7 win over Concordia; he had previously held the record with 19 saves against UC Santa Barbara in October 2008.

UCSD (5-1, 4-1) returns home this weekend for a start of a three-match home stand. On Friday, the Tritons will face Whittier and Navy at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., respectively. The Tritons follow this weekend’s matches with a 6 p.m. tilt on September 22 against Loyola Marymount at Canyonview Pool.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

The UC San Diego women's volleyball team remained undefeated with a sweep of San Francisco State Sunday afternoon at RIMAC Arena. Scores were 25-19, 25-8 and 25-22.
 
It was the sixth straight win for the 15th-ranked Tritons, now 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

For the fourth time this season, UCSD held its opponent to a sub-.100 attack percentage as San Francisco State finished at .097 with 32 kills and 20 errors in 124 attacks. The Tritons countered at .233 with 40 kills and 13 miscues in 116 attempts.

Hillary Williamson finished as UCSD's top kill producer for the fifth time this season and recored her third double-double with 15 kills and 16 digs. She also posted her highest hitting percentage of the year, .424 (15-1-33) from the outside.
 
Katie Condon, who registered a double-double in Friday's victory against Cal Poly Pomona, kept her strong play up and had 10 kills and nine digs. Libero Janessa Werhane dug 18 balls, while Roxanne Brunsting had 18 assists, 13 digs, four kills and a pair of service aces.

Condon recorded a double-double on Friday in the Triton’s 3-0 sweep over Cal Poly Pomona Friday. Scores were 25-14, 25-15 and 25-21 in the CCAA opener for both squads.

Condon put away a match-high 13 kills and added 13 digs to grab her second double-double of the year. The senior outside hitter swung at .343 (13-1-35) while collecting 14.5 points and a pair of blocks.

The Tritons also got a solid performance out of middle blocker Julia Freidenberg, who hit .571 with eight kills and no errors in 14 attacks. Outside Williamson finished with nine kills and 19 digs. Werhane had a match-best 22 digs.

Up next, UCSD plays its first road league games, Friday at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Saturday at Cal State L.A. Both matches start at 7 p.m.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Freshman Cassie Callahan scored the first goal of her Triton career as the No. 5 UC San Diego women's soccer team tied No. 19 Cal State San Bernardino 1-1 on Sunday afternoon to remain unbeaten.

Callahan won a tackle near midfield in the 50th minute and forced pressure on the Coyote defense by dribbling toward goal. Noticing that no CSUSB defenders had stepped in to close the space, Callahan sailed in a shot over the CSUSB keeper's head from about 25 yards away to tie the match 1-1.

The first-year Triton is currently tied for the team lead with 10 shots and she has played the most minutes (367) of any offensive player for UCSD. She played the entire 90 minutes on Friday against Cal State L.A. and posted another 89 minutes Sunday afternoon.

In the Friday game, Sarah McTigue headed-in a corner kick from Hayley Johnson  in the third minute as the Tritons held off No. 11 Cal State L.A., 1-0,

Senior midfielder Anne Wethe went down with an upper body injury and was replaced by Britnee Chesney. The junior transfer played well in Wethe's absence the rest of the way.

“We are going to have to make some adjustments heading into this week,” said coach Brian McManus. “I think Britnee played well and will fit in if we miss Wethe for a bit.”

UCSD is 2-0-2 overall and 1-0-1 in CCAA play. The Tritons will be on the road this weekend at San Francisco State and Cal Poly Pomona. The Tritons will face the Gators at 3 p.m. Friday before clashing with the Broncos at 11:30 a.m Sunday.

MEN’S SOCCER

The UC San Diego men's soccer team rallied for two goals in the second half in a 2-1 come-from-behind victory at Cal State San Bernardino on Sunday afternoon in CCAA play.

UCSD (2-2, 1-1) found the back of the net twice within a three-minute span, capped-off by Jordan Valenciano’s goal in the 57th minute off a free kick. Trailing 1-0, Alex Portela had evened the match at 1-1 moments earlier, finishing off a cross from Evan Walker along the left side.

With the slight edge the Triton defense tightened, with goalkeeper Josh Cohen needing to make just one save the rest of the match. Cohen finished with a pair of saves on seven CSUSB shots.

On Friday, the Tritons dropped a 1-0 decision to unbeaten Cal State L.A, with Rosario Bras scoring the only goal in the 40th minute, finishing of a header off a free kick from Marvin Sandoval.

UCSD will head to San Francisco State to face the Gators on Friday at 12:30 p.m. The Tritons will follow with a road test against Cal Poly Pomona at 2 p.m. Sunday.

CROSS COUNTRY

Competing against a large field for the first time this season, the UC San Diego cross country teams more than held their own on Saturday, posting a pair of top-six finishes at the annual Asics/UC Irvine Invitational on the UCI campus.

The Triton women, who were coming off a victory over Point Loma, Cal State L.A. and Cerritos College last week, finished sixth overall in the 16-team 5k ‘A' run, while the men, who also recorded a win to open the season, finished second out of 13 squads in the their 8k ‘A' competition.
 
The women finished in front of several Division I schools, including USC, Pepperdine, UCI, Cal State Northridge and Cal State Bakersfield, as well as conference foes Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State Dominguez Hills. The men also beat out the likes of UC Irvine, Pepperdine and Northridge.
 
After breaking the tape in UCSD's season opener a week ago, sophomore Chia Chang  was the Tritons' top individual finisher again on Saturday, placing 14th overall with a final time of 18:12.1. She shaved 25 seconds off of her time on the same course last season with the performance.
 
Chang finished nine spots in front of teammate Michelle Le Roux, who was the first of three straight freshmen to score for the Tritons with a time of 18:25.5. Dani Brabender and Madison Tanner finished in 39th and 49th places with respective times of 18:53.0 and 19:01.9, while junior Catherine Crisp  rounded out the scoring for UCSD in 58th place at 19:08.5.
 
UCSD tallied a total of 177 points to finish 27 behind fifth place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Cal Poly won the event with 38 points, while Azusa Pacific was second with 59, Long Beach State was third with 106 and Cal State San Marcos tallied 118 to finish fourth.
 
Senior Alex Corliss had a tremendous performance to lead the Tritons on the men's side, bouncing back from a tough race last week to finish ninth overall at 25:31.9. His effort was a full 1:20 better than his time at the UCI Invitational in 2010.
 
Sophomore Mario Flores posted the next-fastest time for UCSD, clocking in at 25:40.7 to finish 11th. He came in two spots in front of teammate Kellen Levy, who took 13th place at 25:43.5, while senior John Svet and junior Matt Lenehan finished in 16th and 18th places with times of 25:44.6 and 25:45.9.
 
UCSD totaled 67 points on the day, finishing just one point behind first place Cal State San Marcos. The Cougars had two of the top four finishers and placed four in the top 20 overall, but the Tritons' sixth and seventh finishers, Ryan Lok (25:59.0, 26th) and Ben Rich (25:59.1, 27th), finished in front of CSUSM's final scorer. 
 
The Tritons will be back in action this weekend when they compete in the 67th Annual San Diego State Invitational on Saturday. The meet gets underway at 8 a.m. at Balboa Park.
 
NEWS & NOTES

The national champion UCSD softball team has added two junior college transfers, Amber Price and Michelle Escamilla, along with incoming freshman Maria Sykes as the newest members of its program.
 
Price, a first base and outfield transfer from BYU, is a left-handed power hitter. She was a medical redshirt for BYU, but batted .432 at Mesa Community College (AZ) and was a four-year varsity starter at Gilbert High School.
 
Escamilla, a right-handed pitcher from Mt. San Antonio College, comes to UCSD with a career junior college record of 21-1. After leading her team to the California State Championship as a freshman in 2009, Escamilla was forced to redshirt in 2010. In 2011, she earned All-South Coast Conference Second Team honors after going 17-1 in 26 appearances with 103 strikeouts and a 1.81 ERA.
 
Sykes played her high school ball at Lakewood High School and her travel ball for So Cal Wicked. She was a second team All-League selection in both 2010 and 2011, helping her team to three Moore League Championships and a trip to the CIF semifinals in 2010.
 
Price, Escamilla, and Sykes join Kayla Hensel and Monique Portugal, completing the Tritons 2011-2012 recruiting class for softball.

--Compiled from press releases issued by the UCSD sports information office