Southwest Zone Results

Submitted by Frank Connor - The 2006 Dallas Summer Water Polo Classic took place on 6/24-25/06, with Alamo WP (San Antonio), Dallas WPC A, Dallas WPC B, Dynamo WP (Atlanta), HOPS (Houston), Houston WPC, San Antonio WPC and United WPC (Chicago area) in attendance. The standard eight team twenty game schedule was played, with Dallas A, HOPS, Houston and United ending up in the top four after the preliminary round. Notable games of that preliminary were Houston's 9-8 victory over Dynamo and a 5-5 tie in the HOPS United game. In the latter game, HOPS ruled the first half by going out in front by 5-2, but the second half belonged to United, holding HOPS to no goals, while scoring 3 goals. In a strongly defensive game, Sean Wimer's strong arm came through with 2 goals for United while Tupper Ullrich scored 3 goals for HOPS. Both defenses kept the game scoreless after the first 16 seconds of the fourth quarter.

The semi-final between HOPS and Dallas A was also an exciting game, but with considerably more scoring. Dallas started out strongly, gaining a 6-2 advantage a bit over 2 minutes into the second quarter. HOPS then proceeded to outscore Dallas, going up 11-9 less than 30 seconds into the fourth quarter. Dallas then scored the next 4 goals, breaking a 11-11 tie with 3:43 to go in the game, and scoring the clinching last goal with 46 seconds to go, to go up 13-11, although no one watching was sure it was over even then. Andres Rodriguez was unstoppable for Dallas, scoring 7 goals.

For the final standings, Alamo scored an easy 16-4 over Dallas B for 7th place, San Antonio and Dynamo tied for 5th at 8-8, and HOPS beat Houston for 3rd place with a score of 11-7.

The final between United and Dallas A started out much the same as the HOPS/Dallas A semi-final, but United came back strongly and never let up. With less than a minute into the second quarter, Dallas led 6-3 and continued to lead through the first half, the half-time score being 8-6. Then United scored the next 5 goals in a row, taking charge at 11-8 with 1:44 to go in the third quarter. Dallas scored the next 2 goals, closing out the third quarter 11-10 with United leading. Dallas scored the tying goal less than a minute into the fourth quarter, and the score remained 11-11 until 2:18 to go in the game, when United scored the go ahead goal. United then settled the matter with another goal with just over a minute left, to make the final score another exciting 13-11. Scoring for United was led by Sean Wimer and Scott Krasinski with 3 goals each, and Dallas was led by Mihai Oprea with 4 goals.