LA VERNE, Calif. - On the road this afternoon the Cal Lutheran water polo team put a slow start behind them and finished strong, earning a 12-8 victory over La Verne in their final first round game of conference play this afternoon.
The Leos jumped out to a 2-1 first quarter lead and added four in the second stanza to take a 6-4 halftime lead, but it was the Kingsmen who made adjustments in the second half. CLU outscored ULV 8-2 over the final two quarters to earn the win, which evened both their overall and SCIAC records at 13-13 and 4-4, respectively.
Playing the whole game in front of the cage, Danny Mock turned away 14 Leopards shots, adding three steals and a pair of assists. Defensively Max Zappas recorded a game-high five steals while Carter Baldwin and Kyle Norheim finished with four apiece.
The offense saw four different players turn in multi-goal games. Senior Dejan Novakovic led the team with four scores. Zappas would turn in a hat-trick of his own while both Baldwin and Norheim tallied two goals. Hunter Hamaker rounded out the scoring for CLU.
Cal Lutheran (13-13, 4-4 SCIAC) will be off for nine days after drawing a bye on the final day of the regular season Saturday at which time seedings will be available for the 2012 SCIAC Tournament hosted by Whittier on Nov. 9-11.
