California Lutheran University men’s water polo defeated Occidental College 15-10 in the Kingsmenโs final home game of the regular season on Wednesday afternoon. This win secured the Kingsmen a spot in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament.ย
At halftime, the Kingsmen were down 7-4. The team rallied and came back with 11 goals during the second half while only allowing three from the Tigers.ย
Senior center defender Cormac Flanders led the Kingsmen with a total of seven shots and four goals. Right behind him was senior attacker Lincoln Hall with a total of six shots and three goals.ย
โI think we did really good this game. In the first half, we had a lot of opportunities to score but we just couldnโt get there. We knew that in the second half once we were getting those opportunities again we were going to finish them,โ Hall said.
Sophomore center forward Ethan Guereca and senior utility Kayden Sourbeer also put up a total of seven shots.
โDefensively we played great. Jaeger Gonzales was our goalie in the second half he played phenomenally with only three goals against him in the second half. On offense, we were able to convert which was huge. We had a lot of six-on-five opportunities and we were able to put them away. Big shout out to #5 Ethan Guereca, he played really well today,โ Hall said.ย ย
Junior goalkeeper Bo DuBois was in the Kingsmenโs goal for the first half, while sophomore goalkeeper Jaeger Gonzales stepped in for the second half.ย
Gonzales held the Tigers to three goals scored against him during the whole second half with a shutout in the third quarter.
โIt was a really good game, Bo had a really good half. I came in the second half pretty pumped and ready to shut them down. I wanted to make that gap a lot bigger and I think as a team we successfully did that,โ Gonzales said.ย
Gonzales and DuBois had a collective total of nine saves between the two, while seven of those were made by Gonzales.ย
โThis was a very important game, so weโre going to the championships and we’re going to win,โ Gonzales said.
The Kingsmen were led by Head Coach Tim Setttem who was only named head coach in March of this year.
โIt was a battle of two halves. For us it was us sticking to a plan, we had some ups and downs during the first half. We played really well in some sense but just had some lapses but I think we stuck to our plan. Defensively we really came together in the second half and thatโs what led to our offense,โ Settem said.
The Kingsmen wrapped up the regular season with an 11 a.m. match against No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday, Nov. 16. The Kingsmen lost 6-8, but achieved a bid to compete in the SCIAC tournament as a 5-seed.
The first round of the SCIAC Tournament is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 19, and will be hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. The winner of the first round will earn a berth in the tournamentโs semifinals.
