SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Fresno Pacific dropped a pair of decisions at the Santa Clara Rodeo Tournament Saturday. The Sunbirds played tough against two ranked D1 opponents before falling to #13 Air Force 10-6 and #15 Santa Clara 9-7.

FPU falls to 10-8 overall with the pair of defeats. Air Force and Santa Clara are members of the Western Water Polo Association, but both contests were counted as part of the Sunbirds' non-conference schedule.

In the opener against Air Force, FPU couldn't overcome a slow start to fall 10-6.

The Sunbirds trailed 4-1 after the opening quarter and 6-2 at the intermission. Air Force continued to extend its leads in the third with three goals to lead 9-3. The Sunbirds mounted a comeback in the final quarter with three goals before time ran out.

Daniel Seymour led the charge offensively with two goals, while David Maes, Steven Kauffman, John Samson and Kyle Madel rounded out the scoring with a goal apiece. Kevin Richey amassed five saves in the cage for the Sunbirds.

In the nightcap, FPU opened the match with two goals before a 5-0 run by Santa Clara made the difference in the match.
SCU led 7-4 after three quarters and sealed the win with two goals to open the fourth period. FPU scored the final two goals of the make the final 9-7.

Seymour tallied four goals, while Ian Roos finished with a hat-trick for the Sunbirds. Dillon Robinson made four saves in the loss.

"The guys played well and played hard today," said head coach Bryan Suhovy. "We were right there with two ranked teams and we will have a chance to see them again in the next two weeks. I'm happy with our performance overall today. We are now getting ready for strong teams in Brown and Bucknell tomorrow."

FPU will play at 9:20 a.m. against #14 Brown and at 2:40 p.m. against Bucknell.