Men's Water Polo won both of their final home games of the season hosting the Crossover Tournament last Friday besting both Merced and San Mateo college.
The Merced game started tight with a score of 2-2 at the end of the first quarter, but found there offensive rhthym in the second quarter creating a 3 point point lead gap which they never lost again outscoring the Blue Devils 5-8 in the second half for a final victorious game score of 15-9. This was the second win of the season over Merced. Game highlights included: sophomore Cole Morris' dominating performance of 6 goals, 2 assits, 2 steals, 3 ejections drawn, and 1 field block; freshman Chris Miller's 3 goals and a steal; freshman center Ben Gradus' 2 goals, an assist, a steal, an ejection drawn and a field block; sophomore Sebastian King-Gile's 3 steals, a goal, and an assist; and single goals from freshmen Jackson Nail, Silas Strauss, and Roman Dubrowski.
In their first and only season meet-up with the San Mateo Bulldogs, the Cubs had to settle in after trailing 3-4 at half into a powerful offensive game in the third quarter outscoring CSM 6-3 in just 8 minutes. Both teams scored 2 goals each in the 4th, but the damage was done by SRJC in the third to hold their lead with a final score of 11-9. Game highlights included: Gradus' commanding performance with 4 goals, 3 ejections drawn, an assist and a field block; sophomore Enrique Jimenez pulling the hat trick with 3 goals and a steal; Morris' all around game with 2 goals, 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 ejections drawn, and 2 field blocks; and Strauss' 2 goals, 3 assists, and 1 ejection drawn. Freshman goalie, Braden Land had 15 saves between the two games including a stellar 5-Meter penalty shot block at the end of the 1st quarter against CSM creating great momentum for the Cubs in a hard fought game.
The Cubs now advance to the Big 8 Conference Tournament this week on November 7-9, and will open tournament play against Modesto Junior College at 10:20am Thursday. The complete tournament schedule can be seen here.