KEARNS, Utah — Braden Clark (So., San Diego, Calif.) scored four times to earn a nod as Player of the Game for leading nine Tritons who put away shots in the contest as defending National Champion/Southwest Division/No. 1-ranked the University of California-San Diego pounced on Sierra Pacific Division Champion/No. 2 the University of California for a 15-9 semifinal victory at the 2023 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of Utah at the Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center.
UC-San Diego – which previously placed First (2022), Second (2021), Third (2019), Fifth (2018) and Ninth (2013) at the Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship – will aim to join California Polytechnic State University (2001-2002), the University of California-Los Angeles (2009-10), the University of Southern California (2011-12) and Lindenwood University (2014-15-16; 2018-19) as the institutions that have repeated as a Men’s National Collegiate Club Champion.
The Tritons will return to the water at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday, November 12, to face the winner of a semifinal pitting Florida Division Champion/No. 6 the University of Florida and Big Ten Division Champion/No. 5 Michigan State University with the National Championship at stake.
California – which previously earned Second (2012), Third (2013, 2014, 2015), Fourth (2018, 2021), Fifth (2017, 2023) Place marks – will meet the loser of the Gators-Spartans game at 11:30 a.m. in the Third Place game.
The Tritons never trailed in the game as the squad opened up a 2-0 margin and held a 6-1 advantage by the conclusion of the first quarter. The lead shrank to 6-2 and widened to 9-3 during the second quarter prior to settling at 9-4 through 14 minutes.
California managed to chip its deficit down to four (10-6) by the conclusion of the third quarter, but UC-Diego stuck a fork in the Golden Bears by outscoring California, 5-3, over the final seven minutes for a 15-9 victory.
For UC-San Diego, Graham McClone (Gr., Placerville, Calif.) (three) and Alexander Voldby (Jr., Copenhagen, Denmark) (two) joined Clark in netting multi-goal contests. Jackson Cassidy (Sr., San Diego, Calif.), Sheldon French (Sr., San Diego, Calif.), Andrew Cagney (Fr., Whittier, Calif.), Berk Aksoy (Sr., Los Gatos, Calif.), Peter Olson (Jr., Coronado, Calif.) and Gonzalo Rivera (Gr., Madrid, Spain) accounted for the rest of the Tritons’ offense.
Sai Basset, Kai Mohl, Caleb Pine and Tipher Wazzan each scored twice for California to accompany a solo tally by Dylan Hughes.
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| No. 2 University of California |
1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | – | 9 |
| No. 1 University of California-San Diego | 6 | 3 | 1 | 5 | – | 15 |
| UCSD Goals: | Braden Clark (4); Graham McClone (3); Alexander Voldby (2); Jackson Cassidy; Sheldon French; Andrew Cagney; Berk Aksoy; Peter Olson; Gonzalo Rivera | |||||
| California Goals: | Sai Basset (2); Kai Mohl (2); Caleb Pine (2); Tipher Wazzan (2); Dylan Hughes | |||||
| Exclusions: | UCSD – 20 ; California – 11 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | UCSD – 7-for-11 ; California – 3-for-20 | |||||
| Sprints: | UCSD – 2-for-4 (1st, 2nd); California – 2-for-4 (3rd, 4th) | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Victor Rarau, Victor Nguyen | |||||
University of California’s Tipher Wazzan (#4) and University of California-San Diego’s Jackson Cassidy (#4)
University of California’s Caleb Pine (#7) reaches for a steal against the University of California-San Diego’s Alexander Voldby (#17)
University of California’s Tipher Wazzan (#4) looks for an opening as the University of California-San Diego’s Jackson Cassidy (#4) pursues
