On Saturday, Sept. 23, inside Samuelson Aquatics Center, the California Lutheran University men’s water polo team defeated the University of La Verne 16-12 in their first game of a doubleheader at 11 a.m. In the second game at 2 p.m., Cal Lutheran beat Ventura College by a score of 19-9.

In the Kingsmen victory over La Verne, senior center-defenseman Chris Gardhouse scored four goals, junior attacker Zach Zamecki had three goals, and senior attacker Davy Thomas also scored three goals.

“Having a full team effort was the most important thing for us today. La Verne has one guy (Rey Julian Castillo) who’s a lights-out shooter, and going into the game we wanted to limit the amount of goals he got. I think we did a good job but there are definitely areas we can improve on,” Gardhouse said.

The Kingsmen were able to get off to a quick start and led 5-1 after the first period. They maintained this lead until the final buzzer.

“I think we worked well on our counter, our speed worked well, great front and center play, and we also had great pressing and steals and assists,” said Zamecki.

Zamecki added that the team executed the game plan to play high in the lanes and shut down La Verne’s Castillo. “We also had great communication which is what we worked on and improved on a lot,” said Zamecki.

Senior George French and sophomore Matt Fong each tallied two goals to help spur the Kingsmen attack. In addition to scoring four goals, Gardhouse also recorded a team-high four rejections.

Senior Nick Loomis picked up two steals and made eight saves in goal to preserve the win for the Kingsmen. Other Kingsmen who racked up two steals were Gardhouse, Fong, Kevin Oetken and Justin English.

Head Coach Craig Rond said, “I thought our first group came out of the blocks with a lot of great energy and we really focused on defense in the first quarter.”

In the second game of the doubleheader against Ventura College, Cal Lutheran again had the lead, 5-3, at the end of the first period. After this period, the Kingsmen led the rest of the way, until the final tally was 19-9.

Sophomore attacker Seth Hightower led the Kingsmen with four goals scored, and freshmen Stephen Blaauw and Parker Jory each contributed three goals.

Cal Lutheran worked well as a team, as they had 13 assists on their 19 goals. Junior center defenseman Jack Kirby had three assists and freshman Andre Laserna assisted on two goals.

Freshman Andre Rivas and junior Jake Venckus each made five saves in goal, and freshman Jonathan Salandi also saw time in net, making four saves.

After their two wins on Saturday, Cal Lutheran improved to 4-5 on the season and 2-0 in SCIAC play. The Kingsmen’s next game will be at home in the Samuelson Aquatics Center versus Redlands on Wednesday, Sept. 27, starting at 4 p.m.

“We’re playing a good team in Redlands next week, so we have to be better on defense, and I think we can win that one,” said Zamecki.

Coach Rond added, “Every game is tough in this conference, you get no easy wins. We’ll celebrate today, but come Monday we have to be really focused and get after it to game plan against Redlands.”

David Brown
Reporter