LA JOLLA, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Water Polo team split day one of the Triton Invitational with a 16-3 loss in game one to UC Davis and a 15-13 win over Westcliff.
UC Davis 16, Pomona-Pitzer 3
The Sagehens had three different goal scorers in game one as Kyle Green, Andrew Plaschke and Jack Ryan all netted goals in the loss.
Pomona-Pitzer got off to a slow start as UC Davis notched the first four games of the contest to take an early 4-0 lead in the first quarter. Ryan got the first goal of the game for the Sagehens with 3:14 left to play in the first but UC Davis ended the quarter with two-straight goals to make it 6-1 heading into the second.
UC Davis continued to add to their lead in the first half with three more in the second and after the Sagehens failed to find the back of the net, UC Davis took a 9-1 lead into halftime.
Plaschke scored his first goal of 2022 in the third quarter to cut into the lead at 11-2, but the Sagehens faced a large 12-2 deficit heading into the fourth. Pomona-Pitzer and UC Davis exchanged goals to open the fourth as Green added his name to the scoresheet but the Sagehens ultimately fell in game one 16-3.
Pomona-Pitzer 15, Westcliff 13
The Sagehens were led by Sam Sasaki who netted a team-high four goals in the win. Benjamin Sasaki also netted a hat-trick with three goals while Timothy Mangan and Matija Jancic added two and Kyle Green, Conrad Hugar, Andrew Plaschke and Jack Ryan each ended with one.
Sam Sasaki got the Sagehens out front with the opening two goals of the game until the Spartans cut the lead in half to make it 2-1. Plaschke added another for the Sagehens, and Sam Sasaki completed his hat-trick all within the first quarter to give the Sagehens a 4-2 lead heading into the second.
The Sagehens had their biggest scoring quarter of the game in the second as they notched five goals. Westcliff started the quarter with the first two goals to tie the game at 2-2 until the Sagehens went on a 5-0 run with goals from Hugar, Ben Sasaki, Jancic and Mangan to take a 9-4 lead. The Spartans were able to pull one back before halftime, but Pomona-Pitzer took a 9-5 lead into the break.
Ben Sasaki came out in the second half and immediately added two more goals to the Sagehens' total to extend the lead to 11-5 and gave the Sagehens a comfortable lead to work with in the second half. The Sagehens went on to score two of the next three goals from Mangan and Ryan to take their largest lead of the game at 13-6.
Westcliff started to chip away and made a run at the comeback to close the gap to 13-10 but Sam Sasaki and Green stopped the comeback with back-to-back goals to make it 15-10 in the fourth. The Spartans continued to push for a late comeback and closed the gap to within two goals at 15-13, but the Sagehens were able to stay on top for their first win of 2022.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next take on La Verne on Sunday, September 4th at 12:00 p.m. at Triton Pool.
