The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Water Polo team split day one of the 2022 Gary Troyer Tournament with a 17-14 SCIAC win at La Verne and a 17-10 loss at home against No. 12 Pepperdine.
Season Impact: With the split, the Sagehens move to 7-8 overall and 2-0 in SCIAC play.
Pomona-Pitzer 17, La Verne 14
The Sagehens were led by the Sasaki brothers who each netted five goals in the win. Kyle Green also scored a hat-trick with four while Alexander Peterson Matija Jancic and Conrad Hugar each ended up with one. Liam Byrne earned the win in the cage for Pomona-Pitzer with eight saves and one steal.
The Leopards scored the first goal of the game to take an early lead but Ben Sasaki, Sam Sasaki and Green combined for the first four goals for Pomona-Pitzer to take a 4-2 lead. La Verne ended the first quarter four of the final five goals to take a 6-5 lead over the Sagehens heading into the second.
La Verne grew its lead to 7-5 before Green Sasaki and Peterson got the Sagehens back on top 8-7 with 4:15 left before halftime. The Leopards answered with back-to-back goals to reclaim the lead at 9-8 but Sam Sasaki evened the score at 9-9 with a late goal heading into halftime.
The Sagehens came out in the second half and started to grow their lead with opening goals from Jancic, Green and Hugar to take a 12-9 lead. Pomona-Pitzer kept the lead comfortable during the third and took their largest lead of the game at 15-11 after a goal from Sam Sasaki to open the fourth.
La Verne came back strong in the fourth and cut it down to a single score game at 15-14 with 2:05 to play, but the Sagehens held off the Leopards with goals from Sam Sasaki and Green to take a SCIAC win in game one of their Gary Troyer Tournament.
Pomona-Pitzer 10, Pepperdine 17
The Sagehens were led by Sam Sasaki who had six goals for Pomona-Pitzer in the loss. Alexander Peterson had two goals while Matija Jancic also netted two in the loss.
Pepperdine jumped out to a 2-1 lead, but Sam Sasaki matched the Waves to keep the Sagehens even at 2-2. Pepperdine extended the lead out to 6-2 in the first half, but the Sagehens battled back with goals from Jancic, Perterson and Sasaki to tie it at 6-6 with 2:07 left to play in the first half, but the Waves scored a late goal to take a 7-6 lead into halftime.
The Waves moved the lead to three goals with back-to-back scores out of halftime with
Sasaki and Jancic netting third quarter goals to keep the Sagehens in it down 9-8.
Pepperdine started to pull away in the fourth at 14-9 and eventually ran away from the Sagehens to prevent any comeback attempt as Pomona-Pitzer fell in a tight contest in the day one finale of the 2022 Gary Troyer Tournament.
Up Next: The Sagehens continue Gary Troyer with games against Redlands and Pacific at 11:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
