KEARNS, Utah — The defending 2022 Men’s National Collegiate Club Champion and 2023 Southwest Division Champion Tritons of No. 1-ranked the University of California-San Diego stuck a fork in host/Rocky Mountain Division runner-up the University of Utah as UC-San Diego exploited 5-1 and 6-3 scoring advantages in the second and fourth quarters, respectively, to upend the Utes, 18-8, in the opening game of the 2023 Men’s National Collegiate Club Championship.
Courtesy the win, UC-San Diego advances into the tournament quarterfinals on Saturday, November 11, at 9:00 a.m. Mountain versus the victor of a first round match-up pitting Missouri Valley Division Champion/No. 13 McKendree University and New England Division Champion/No. 6 Dartmouth College. Utah will face the fallen from the Bearcats/Big Green clash at 9:50 p.m. this evening in the consolation side of the bracket.
Competing at the Kearns Oquirrh Park Fitness Center in Kearns, Utah, the home team jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead on a strike by William Bennett (So., Orange, Calif.) with 4:49 left in the first quarter. The Tritons answered with a man-up tally by Berk Aksoy (Sr., Los Gatos, Calif.) at 4:31 and a natural marker from Player of the Game Graham McClone (Gr., Placerville, Calif.) with 3:56 on the clock to push UC-San Diego ahead for the first time at 2-1. Utah netted equalizer and go-ahead scores at 3:24 (man-up) and 2:07 as Tanner Jones (Sr., Danville, Calif.) ticked off back-to-back tallies to provide the Utes a 3-2 margin.
However, Alexander Voldby (Jr., Copenhagen, Denmark) put the Tritons in front to stay prior to the conclusion of the first quarters by tossing balls into the twine at 1:43 and two seconds to make it 4-3 in favor of the defending National Champions after seven minutes.
Braden Clark (So., San Diego, Calif.) and Jackson Cassidy (Sr., San Diego, Calif.) padded the spread to 7-3 with back-to-back goals at 5:06 and 3:58, respectively, in the second quarter prior to Aksoy delivering natural (2:20) and penalty shot (2:02) strikes to inflate the Tritons’ lead to 8-3.
Bennett terminated UC-San Diego’s run with 53 seconds remaining in the first half, but Matthew Spry (So., Santee, Calif.) lined in an answer with 39 ticks left on the clock to make it 9-4 at the midway point.
Voldby completed a hat-trick at the 4:46 mark of the third quarter to widen the gap to 10-4, but Jones found the back of the cage once again at 3:28 to inch Utah to within five at 10-5. Spry (53 seconds) and Andrew Cagney (Fr., Whittier, Calif.) (one second) completed the third quarter with two final blows to provide the Tritons’ a 12-5 margin after 21 minutes of action.
UC-San Diego continued to pull away in the dawning moments of the fourth quarter as McClone (6:26, 4:31) buried back-to-back chances to make it 14-5. Rocky Smith (Fr., Draper, Utah) put away a man-up chance at 4:08 to put another marker on the host team’s side of the scoreboard, but McClone answered at 3:52 to make it 15-6.
Jones notched another man-up strike for Utah at 3:13, Anshul Devnani (Gr., Orlando, Fla.) responded for UC-San Diego at 1:49 and Aidan Moss (So., Clayton, Calif.) put another goal on the scoreboard for the Utes at 1:17 prior to Voldby (56 seconds) and Parker Knopf (Gr., Norco, Calif.) (20 seconds) wrapping up the scoring with back-to-back tallies for the Tritons.
For Utah, Jones (four) and Bennett (two) both posted multi-goal games, while Moss and Smith chipped in solo markers. Goalkeeper Forrest Coughenour (Jr., Park City, Utah) stopped nine shots in taking the loss.
Across the tank, McClone (four), Voldby (four), Aksoy (three) and Spry (two) combined for 13 of UC-San Diego’s 18 goals. Cassidy, Knopf, Clark, Cagney and Devnani each slipped in solo strikes in support of a six save effort by netminders Bryce Elsner (Sr., Carlsbad, Calif.) and Winston Loh (So., Fullerton, Calif.).
| 1st Q | 2nd Q | 3rd Q | 4th Q | – | FINAL | |
| No. 1 University of California-San Diego |
4 | 5 | 3 | 6 | – | 18 |
| University of Utah | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | – | 8 |
| Utah Goals: | Tanner Jones (4); William Bennett (2); Aidan Moss; Rocky Smith | |||||
| UCSD Goals: | Graham McClone (4); Alexander Voldby (4); Berk Aksoy (3); Matthew Spry (2); Jackson Cassidy; Parker Knopf; Braden Clark; Andrew Cagney; Anshul Devnani | |||||
| Saves: | Utah – Forrest Coughenour (9); UCSD – Bryce Elsner (3); Winston Loh (3) |
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| Exclusions: | Utah – 6 ; UCSD – 9 | |||||
| Advantage Opportunities: | Utah – 3-for-9 ; UCSD – 2-for-6 | |||||
| Cards/Misconducts: | None | |||||
| Officials: | Andrew Mattson, Chad Quinn | |||||
The University of California-San Diego’s Andrew Cagney (#14) shoots over a closing Tanner Jones (#5) of the University of Utah
The University of California-San Diego’s Alexander Voldby (#17) attempts a shot as the University of Utah’s Greysen Gaderson (#7) pursues and fellow Tritons Joseph Holloway (#15) and Anshul Devnani (#2) spectate
The University of Utah’s Rocky Smith (#14) and the University of California-San DIego’s Mattew Spry (#6)
The University of California-San Diego’s Winston Loh (#1A)
