Under the bright California sun, the Claremont Colleges hosted some of the two dozen teams attending the Gary Troyer Invitational for men’s water polo at the Axelrood and Haldeman Pools on the weekend of Oct. 3.
In its annual iteration of the tournament, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Stags faced off against Mount St. Mary’s, UC Irvine, the U.S. Air Force Academy and McKendree University. Just across the street, the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens matched up against California Baptist, UC San Diego, Concordia University Irvine and Biola University.
The Stags finished the weekend with an impressive 4-0 record, featuring two dramatic victories versus Division I programs. The Sagehens, on the other hand, struggled to make a splash as they exited the weekend with just one win.
According to Asher Engelberg CM ’28, the DI and DIII distinction did not stop the Stags from bringing their best performance in the pool, even against their strongest opponents.
“I think we did a really great job of [competing] this weekend,” Engelberg said. “We went into the game with a great attitude and the belief that we can hang with these DI teams, that we’re really a cohesive and talented unit that has a shot against these guys.”
On their first day of competition on Sunday, CMS took care of business against Mt. Saint Mary’s with a dominant 19-7 win and then entered a highly anticipated game with DI powerhouse UC Irvine.
At the end of the third quarter, the game was tied at nine goals each. Thomas Walker CM ’26 scored two goals in the fourth to tie the game at 11, and Nick Kennedy CM ’27 came to the rescue at the last minute to place the game-winner in the back of the net.
“We had played a decent first three quarters of water polo against [UC Irvine],” Engelberg said. “Obviously, coming into the game, they were ranked higher than us. And I think it was a game that a lot of people expected us to lose, but morale was decently high because we were hanging in it with them, so we knew that we could beat them and that we were the better team that day.”
Before his game-winner, Kennedy had already scored five goals. He had half of CMS’s goal tally, and he was recognized for his leading efforts, earning the SCIAC Offensive Player of the Week. To him, winning the game versus UCI was an unprecedented feeling.
“I personally haven’t experienced an upset like that, I’d say, in my time here at Claremont,” Kennedy said. “Getting that win was super fun, not just for the team, but also for all the fans. We actually had a pretty, pretty packed fan row for that game, and so it was great to be able to experience that.”
For Tobias Schoenwald CM ’28, the pre-SCIAC tournaments are key to pointing out the key differences between a DIII and DI program, helping the team prepare for tougher competition that SCIAC may not provide.
“The main difference is that their programs are a lot more intense than ours,” Schoenwald said. “I mean, they do it year-round. They’re much more conditioned than we are, and something that we see a lot when we play DI teams, is that their stamina and endurance is a lot better than ours … but if we keep them in the half court longer, then we can use what we learn in practice and film to outplay [them].”
As the Stags entered day two of the tournament undefeated, their job was nowhere near finished. They had another dominant showing against the McKendree University Bearcats, finishing 26-13, and had one last DI opponent remaining: the Air Force Academy Falcons.
CMS was neck-and-neck with the Falcons, ending the half with a lead of two goals. The Stags emerged from the locker room energized and ran away with the game in the second half, outscoring the Falcons by eight goals to win 21-11.
Engelberg emphasized the importance of strategy in their victory over the Falcons to keep the Stags’ winning streak alive and come out of the tournament undefeated.
“Credit to our team and our coaches, specifically, they really helped us gameplan for the Air Force game,” Engelberg said. “Coming into [the game], they had the leading scorer in the NCAA on their team, and we did a really good job of game planning for him and shutting him down … I don’t want to say riding the win off UCI, but we came into it very confident and motivated.”
For Kennedy, the team’s poise under pressure was the standout factor that helped the Stags conquer moments when they fell behind.
“One thing that we did really well at was just keeping our composure,” Kennedy said. “It’s pretty easy for other teams to go on momentum runs or, when something’s not going your way, it’s easy to get frustrated. But this weekend, we really focused on keeping our composure for when those moments did inevitably happen. And you know, even if a goal or two got scored on us in a row, we did a good job keeping level heads and attacking the play after.”
Thanks to a successful weekend, the Stags are breaking superstitions that have held them back in regular-season play against SCIAC opponents. According to Schoenwald, the team has consistently struggled in its second conference game over the past three seasons. This year, that has changed.
“Knowing [the superstition], it doesn’t matter what happened last weekend; anything could happen in SCIAC,” Schoenwald said. “Every team is coming for us at this point. We’re ranked 16th in the country now, and no other DIII program is close to us … If they can manage to pull out a win, then they think they’re in the lead … But we are going to prove that that’s not going to happen, especially for Pomona-Pitzer.”
The Stags have successfully warded off the second-SCIAC-game curse in a 17-11 victory over Chapman University on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Led by Gavin Netherton HM ’27, Kennedy and Jeffrey Koretz CM ’27, who combined for a total of 15 points, CMS improved to a record of 11-4 and remained undefeated in conference play.
The team has 10 SCIAC games left and is hoping for a strong finish to return to the DIII National Championships. With a long stretch still to go, Engelberg emphasized the importance of staying concentrated even during a win streak.
“Last year, with a couple of SCIAC teams, we came into it thinking that we were going to just roll over them, but we lacked the correct attitude,” Engelberg said. “But I think we’re doing a good job this year of going into every game very focused and not trying to overlook any of the teams.”
After their sweep, the Stags will return to conference play vs. the University of La Verne on Saturday, Oct. 11, at Axelrood Pool.