WHITTIER, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Water polo team played their third-straight game against a Top-3 opponent falling 16-9 on the road to No. 3 Whittier College.
The Maroon and Grey continue to compete within Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play moving to 5-19, 2-8 SCIAC.
It was a back-and-forth opening quarter with both teams adding three goals. Drake Moody (Camarillo, CA) tied things up at the 5:21 mark and Andrew Sorensen (Long Beach, CA) gave UR a lead with 3:58 to play. WC regained the lead with back-to-back connections, but Moody would come up clutch again tying the game up for the second time moving the score to 3-3.
The Bulldogs and Poets swapped goals throughout the second quarter until the 2:22 mark when Whittier would extend their lead to two with a man-up goal from Fabio Mujica.
First-year Owen Nishimura (Carlsbad, CA) then came down with under a minute to play and was found inside set as he connected to cut the lead to one at the half.
Out of the break Spencer Clinton (Cypress, CA) utilized a man-up advantage to tie things up inside. But after that WC countered with three unanswered that put them on top 11-7. Curren McCarthy (San Clemente, CA) ended the run with 1:48 to play that made it a two-score game, but the advantage moved back to three with :54 seconds left as the Poets' Thomas Baier would use a 6-on-5 to add his first of the game.
Whittier extended the lead to five at 13-8 following back-to-back tallies from Carlos Heredia-Viteri. Wagener would end the mini-run putting nine up on the board for UR, but that would be the only score added in the quarter as WC would go on to tack on three more to pull off the 16-9 victory.
The Bulldogs took 25 shots, were 3-of-12 on powerplays, and finished with a .360 shot percentage. Brandon Khalil (Bakersfield, CA) played 16:00 minutes between the posts collecting six saves. Liam Murphy (Placentia, CA) who is returning from injury played another 16:00 minutes and picked up five stops in his first action since September 19.
Redlands returns to the pool remaining on the road this Saturday, October 30 when they take on the University of La Verne beginning at 11:00 a.m.