Redlands Men's Water Polo falls to Whittier 13-10, preps for SCIAC Quarterfinal

Image Credit: Maddi Spencer
Image Credit: Maddi Spencer
Posted: Nov 12, 2022

WHITTIER, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Water Polo team ended their 2022 regular season Saturday morning dropping a 13-10 decision to Whittier College. 

Redlands splits on the season with the Poets and move to 13-14, 5-6 SCIAC.  Despite the loss the Bulldogs have already qualified for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament coming in as the No. 5 seed.  

The Bulldogs had a great start with a 2-0 lead in the opening two minutes thanks to goals from Drake Moody (Camarillo, CA) and Ron Gvishi (Kiryat Tivón, Israel).

In the final 4:16 of the first quarter the Bulldogs and Poets combined for four goals, three of which were scored by the Purple & Gold.  The last connection of the period coming from Jack Ryan (Ventura, CA) who capitalized on a powerplay with :48 seconds left deadlocking the game at 3-3. 

In the final minute of the second quarter the Bulldogs had fallen behind by two goals following a 3-1 run by the Poets.  But Tanner Whitson (St. Louis, MO) had a response cutting the deficit in half with :24 seconds remaining moving the score to 6-5 at the break. 

The deficit for UR grew to three in the third quarter, 8-5.  But it would soon change as Gvishi would score with 2:30 left followed by Ethan Beaty (Denver, CO) who netted a pair as the Poet lead sat at only one, 9-8, late in the period. 

Redlands' comeback attempt was thwarted when Whittier opened the first four minutes of the fourth quarter with four of the first five tallies moving the score to 13-9.  Ryan would add the final score for UR, but it would come with 1:22 to play, which wasn't enough to spark a comeback.    

The Bulldogs shot a respectable .417 for the game but allowed the Poets to shoot .448 and run twelve powerplays to their six.

Gvishi, Ryan, and Beaty all had braces and Brandon Khalil (Bakersfield, CA) started in goal and played the full 32:00 minutes, making eight saves.

Opening up the SCIAC Tournament the Bulldogs will now travel to Claremont, CA on Wednesday, November 16 to take on No. 4 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a Quarterfinal matchup.  On the season UR went 0-2 against the Stags.  The first time they played was during the Triton Invitational where the Bulldogs fell 11-7 and the second time, which came within conference action Redlands lost by one 11-10.