The No. 17 men’s water polo team finished their weekend travel campaign with a 2-1 record, losing their first match against No. 14 St. Francis College Terriers 16-15 but winning the final two games.
Bruno’s first match Saturday came up against the Terriers (8-4), the defending Collegiate Water Polo Association champions, in a repeat of the Bruno Fall Invitational two weekends ago when the Bears (8-5) fell 11-9. With minutes remaining in the match, Henry Fox ’15 scored a goal that pushed the squad to just one point behind the Terriers. St. Francis responded and expanded their lead back up to two, 16-14. With 1 minute, 16 seconds left in the game, Nick Deaver ’15 scored yet another goal for Bruno, but it was not enough to overcome St. Francis — the match finished with a 16-15 victory for the Terriers.
“We were out of our element — it was a very different environment than we’re used to,” Deaver said. “It was a complete physical battle.”
During the final match Saturday the squad’s first years delivered a noteworthy performance, guiding Bruno to a decisive 17-5 victory over the Fordham University Rams (7-5). Jake Wyatt ’17 tallied three goals for the Bears, while Luke Irwin ’17 and Warren Smith ’17 tacked on two goals each. Walker Shockley ’14 was between the bars for the first half of the game and went on to make a total of six saves in the half.
In the final match of the road trip, the Bears faced off against the Iona College Gaels (2-10) in a close game that finished with a 15-13 Bruno victory. At the beginning of the third quarter, the Gaels and the Bears were tied at eight. But the Bears tallied five goals in the third quarter, while Shockley held the Gaels to three goals in the third quarter. This defensive surge in the third quarter ultimately made the difference, and the squad pulled away with a 15-13 victory.
“We stuck to our fundamentals — we overpowered them using our strengths and skill set,” Deaver said. “We were able to come in strong in the second half, and shut them down with textbook defense.”
Bruno’s efforts continue this weekend as the team travels to Cambridge for rematches against the Harvard Crimson (4-8) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineers (3-7). In their first meeting of the season, the Bears defeated the Crimson in a late-game thriller at the Bruno Fall Classic, 9-8. The following weekend the Bears beat the Engineers in the Bruno Fall Invitational, 14-10. The squad hopes to build on these previous successes, and come back to campus with two more victories for the season.
“We are excited to play Harvard — we have a full lineup,” Deaver said. “(Harvard) beat St. Francis this past weekend, so we’re going to be contending for a better bracket position.”
ADVERTISEMENT
