LA VERNE, Calif. - Competing at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Men's Water Polo Championships, hosted by La Verne at Las Flores Pool over the weekend, the Cal Lutheran men's water polo team came away with a sixth place finish to conclude its season.
The Kingsmen opened the championships with a narrow 10-8 loss to Chapman on Friday afternoon, and followed that with a 15-8 victory over Occidental on Saturday before falling to Pomona-Pitzer 13-8 in the fifth place game on Sunday.
CU def. CLU 10-8
Day one of the SCIAC Championships pitted the No. 5 seed Cal Lutheran against No. 4 Chapman, and it was the Panthers who held on for a close victory after taking an early lead. Zack Card converted a penalty shot to put CLU on the board in the first quarter, but Chapman added a penalty shot of their own along with a buzzer-beater by Sam Baker to give the Panthers an early 4-1 advantage. After CU took a 9-3 lead early in the third quarter, the Kingsmen scored four straight goals, coming from Card, George French, Ben Russell and Camron Hauer, to cut the Panther lead to two, 9-7. That, however, was as close as CLU would get as Chapman added another goal and came up with key blocks down the stretch.
Card and Hauer led the way with two goals apiece while Chris Gardhouse led the way with five drawn ejections and two steals. Nick Loomis finished with eight saves in the cage.
CLU def. OXY 15-8
On Saturday morning, Cal Lutheran saw 11 different players score in a game where all 21 players saw action in a 15-8 rout over Occidental. The Violet and Gold took an early 4-1 lead behind goals from Jack Acampora, Cameron Knudsen, Card and Gardhouse during the first quarter. The Kingsmen continued to extend their lead with goals from Shea Craig, Mats Albins, Russell and Gardhouse again to go up 8-2 and put the game out of reach.
Gardhouse led CLU with three goals in the game while AJ Franklin and Acampora added two. In the cage, Loomis finished with 11 saves, two assists and two steals.
PP def. CLU 13-8
In the fifth place game on Sunday morning, the Kingsmen and Sagehens battled neck-and-neck until the fourth quarter when Pomona-Pitzer outscored CLU 4-0 to secure the victory.
Card was dominant in the game and led CLU with four goals while Gardhouse added two to go along with two steals, two drawn ejections and three assists. Russell and French also scored in the game and Loomis tallied 10 saves in the cage.
Cal Lutheran wraps up the season with an overall record of 11-14, 5-6 SCIAC.
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