After a long fought battle on Oct. 5, the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) men’s water polo team fell to the University of California Irvine Anteaters 22-14. As part of the annual Gary Troyer Tournament, both P-P and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps hosted some of the nation’s top teams for the weekend.
On the first day of the tournament, the No. 2 Division III ranked Sagehens battled Division I Johns Hopkins and Division III Pepperdine, and finished off against Division I teams UC Irvine and Mt. Saint Mary’s the following day. P-P closed each day with a record of 1-1, with wins against Johns Hopkins and Mt. Saint Mary’s, and losses to Irvine and Pepperdine.
Day two of the competition for the Hens stood as a particularly tough challenge as they faced off against the No. 6 ranked UCI Anteaters.
The Anteaters came out strong, taking an 8-3 lead in the first quarter. However, the Sagehens were determined to put up a fight.
“After the first and second quarter, our coach was just like, ‘pretend it’s a 0-0 game,’” Connor Sullivan PO ’28 said. “That’s what we did. If you look at the goals each quarter, we did better and better.”
In the second quarter, additional goals from Logan Colman PZ ’28 and Chase Barman PZ ’27 helped the Hens improve their form and lessen the Anteater’s lead.
Despite their effort, at the beginning of the second half the Anteaters took full advantage of another strong start, extending their lead by nine by the end of the third quarter.
Despite the large deficit, Colman said he saw the benefit of playing such highly ranked teams like UCI.
“[When] we’re going against these DI teams … it makes us do the fundamentals,” he said. “[That way] when we go against the CMS’, the Chapmans, the Redlands, we’re perfect in those games and we’re able to execute.”
P-P continued their fight into the fourth quarter, outscoring Irvine 4-3. Colman finished the game with four goals, and Sullivan and Zach Whitfield PO ‘27 each notched two on the scoreboard.
While the loss wasn’t the result that the Sagehens had hoped for, Head Coach Alex Rodriguez said he saw the game as a step in the right direction for the team.
“We signed up for games like UCI and last night’s game for an opportunity to play better competition and to develop,” Rodriguez said.
After wrapping up at Gary Troyer, the Hens reentered SCIAC action with a 15-10 win against Occidental College Wednesday night and look forward to a battle against Chapman University Saturday, Oct. 12 at 11 a.m. where they will work to improve their 7-8 overall and 2-0 SCIAC record.
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