WHITTIER, Calif. - Cal Lutheran men's water polo opened the 2012 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament with an overtime victory, defeating Chapman 15-14 in the first of three games this weekend, after a nine day hiatus.
CLU entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed after a 4-4 showing in the first round of action.
In the rubber match was a lot like the first one, with the Kingsmen coming away with a one-point win on the road. After falling 12-9 in the final meeting between the teams in the regular season, the Violet and Gold came back fired up and ready for revenge.
Things got off to a slow start for CLU, though, losing the first two periods by 4-2 margins and trailing 8-4 at the intermission. After the break, it was a role reversal as CLU outscored CU 4-2 in both the third and fourth quarters to force extra time.
During the first three minute period, Chapman scored once and Cal Lutheran found the back of the net twice. In the second three minute overtime the teams exchanged goals and when Kyle Norheim scored his only goal of the game with 48 ticks remaining, he locked up the win for the Kingsmen.
Hunter Hamaker led all players with six goals while Dejan Novakovic finished with a hat-trick as well. Carter Baldwin and Spencer McGrath each scored a pair and Max Zappas rounded out the scoring. Norheim drew a team leading and season-high six ejections, adding four assists to his game winning goal. Novakovic handed out five assists to lead all players while also coming away with two steals.
Danny Mock played the entire contest in front of the cage, turning away 18 Panthers shots and recording an assist. McGrath came up with three steals for the Kingsmen today.
The eight eligible teams converged in Whittier for the event, which began this morning. Caltech, though playing SCIAC games during the regular season have forfeited their right to participate in the SCIAC Tournament due to NCAA violations last year.
Cal Lutheran (14-13, 5-4 SCIAC) will play Claremont-Mudd-Scripps tomorrow, Sat. Nov 10, at 11:30 a.m. at Whittier College.
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