SAN DIEGO – The University of Redlands Men's Water Polo team ended the Triton Invitational, hosted by UC San Diego Sunday with a pair of losses to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) rivals Claremont-M-S (11-7) and the University of La Verne (15-11) ending the two-day event 1-3.
Game 1 (Claremont-M-S; L, 11-7)
The Bulldogs got out in front quickly against the Stags making a 4-0 statement across the opening six minutes. Four different Bulldogs scored during the run, coming from Andrew Higginson (San Diego, CA), Dan Bajda (Lombard, IL), Owen Nishimura (Carlsbad, CA), and Jake Rose (San Diego, CA).
This lead though evaporated quickly however as the Bulldogs would get held scoreless over the final 9:54 of the half allowing CMS to put up five straight swinging the momentum, while taking a 5-4 lead into intermission.
Less than two minutes into the third quarter, Eamon Greathouse (Bainbridge Island, WA) ended the Stag run finding the equalizer. But that's as close as the Bulldogs would get as CMS would go on a 6-2 run across the final 11:43 to pull off the win. The final two goals for UR came courtesy of Rose, his second of the game, and Spencer Sellwood (Irvine, CA).
In goal Liam Murphy (Placentia, CA) started and played the full 32 minutes and made two saves.
Game 2 (La Verne; L, 15-11)
It was a back-and-forth start to the contest with four ties. Callum Norman (Johannesburg, South Africa), Rose, Andrew Sorensen (Long Beach, CA), and Greathouse all scored during the seesaw battle as the Bulldogs continued to spread their scoring around.
After going on a scoring drought in the second quarter, Sorensen scored :13 seconds into the third and cut the deficit to three, 8-5.
Heading into the fourth quarter the Bulldogs faced a five-goal deficit. Less than a minute into the quarter Higginson got another goal. Then with 4:40 remaining UR created some fireworks pulling within three, but that 11th goal was their last as they would get held scoreless the rest of the way allowing the Leopards to come away with the non-conference victory.
Both Murphy and Brandon Khalil (Bakersfield, CA) got time in goal.
Redlands begins preparations for the Inland Empire Classic, set to take place this weekend, September 10-11. They will host Fresno Pacific (September 10 @ 10:30am), Air Force (September 10 @ 5:00pm), Concordia (September 11 @ 10:30am), and Cal Baptist (September 11 @ 5:00pm).