WHITTIER, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Water Polo team left Whittier with a 13-11 win over the Poets on Wednesday night at the Slade Aquatics Center.
Season Impact: With the win, the Sagehens improve to 10-11 overall and 5-1 in SCIAC play.
The Sagehens were led by Sam Sasaki who netted four goals in the win. Benjamin Sasaki also netted a hat-trick with three goals while Kyle Green, Alexander Peterson and Matija Jancic had two. Liam Byrne got the win for Pomona-Pitzer inside the cage with six saves.
Pomona-Pitzer was down early in the game after the Poets jumped out to a 3-0 lead within the first four minutes of the first quarter. It took the Sagehens nearly seven minutes to find their first goal of the night as Sam Sasaki opened his scoresheet to make it 3-1 in favor of the Poets to end the first.
Sam Sasaki also netted the first goal of the second quarter followed by Peterson to tie the game at 3-3, but Whittier came back with three more goals in a row to reclaim a 6-3 lead over the Sagehens. Sam Sasaki scored his third goal of the night to cut into the Whittier lead before halftime, but the Sagehens trailed 6-4 heading into the break.
The third quarter was the turning point for the Sagehens on offense as they came out and outscored the Poets 6-2 in the third. Ben Sasaki scored all three of his goals in the third quarter while Green and Jancic joined the big scoring period as well to give the Sagehens a 10-8 lead heading into the fourth.
The Sagehens and Poets started off the final quarter alternating goals to make it 11-10 with 4:21 left to go. Sam Sasaki put the Sagehens up two at 12-10 with four minutes left to play but Whittier responded to make it 12-11 with two minutes to go. Pomona-Pitzer iced the game with a late goal by Jancic to go up 13-11 with just 13 seconds remaining as the Sagehens completed their road comeback win over Whittier.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next head east to compete in the Harvard Invite on Saturday, October 15th.
