THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Luke Matthies scored five goals, Lincoln Hall added three more and Cal Lutheran men's water polo defeated La Verne 18-13 on Wednesday afternoon.
 
The Kingsmen won their second straight game to open conference play and are now 3-6 on the season. They defeated Caltech 19-5 to start conference play. 
 
"The team played great today," said head coach John Jacobson. "We started off really well then got into some foul trouble. The squad did a great job of resetting and finished the contest really well. It was a very good team win with lots of different contributors." 
 
The Kingsmen had nine different goal scorers led by Matthies and Hall. Jack Bradbury, Levi Cook, and Adam Dow all scored twice. Tre Eade, Kayden Sourbeer, Zane Hermann, and Justin Boals each had one. Bo DuBois was in goal, and got the win, as he made nine saves. 
 
The Kingsmen scored the first three points of the game as Bradbury scored twice with Matthies adding one. After the Leopards answered with two goals, the Kingsmen added three more and had a 6-2 lead at the end of the first.  La Verne flipped the script in the second quarter, cutting the lead to one, as Cal Lutheran was up 9-8 at the half. 

The defense picked up in the second half. Cal Lutheran was on a mission and outscored La Verne 2-0 throughout the first six minutes. Matthies and Lincoln Hall gave their team the three-point lead. The Kingsmen added one more, shut out the Leopards in the third, and took a 12-9 lead to the fourth. They picked up in the fourth right where they left off and scored the first goal of the quarter. The Leopards slowly started to climb back in the game as the Kingsmen led 14-12 with 3:50 remaining. The Kingsmen didn't let up and went on a 4-1 run to close out the game. 
 
The Kingsmen continue the season with non-conference play. They are at the Gary Troyer Invitational on Friday and Saturday.