LA JOLLA, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Water Polo team ended the Triton Invitational with a pair of non-conference wins over SCIAC opponent's La Verne 17-7 and CMS 10-9 on Sunday afternoon.
With the wins, the Sagehens improve to 3-1 to start the year.
Pomona-Pitzer 17, La Verne 7
The Sagehens were led by Nico Perna who earned his first collegiate hat-trick with three goals in the win. Maxim Koretsky, Alexander Perterson, and Jacob Whiting had two goals while Kyle Green, Benjamin Sasaki, Stavros Panos, Patrick Hughes, Timothy Mangan, Zachary Kaplan, Andrew Plaschke, and Lukas Schoenwald each had one.
The Sagehens came out firing in the first quarter after they outscored La Verne 6-0. Mangan, Perterson, and Perna started out the scoring in the first to give the Sagehens a 3-0 lead with 2:24 left in the first. Perna scored his second with back-to-back goals and Koretsky and Ben Ssaki added goal late in the first quarter to take a 6-0 lead into the second.
La Verne started out the second quarter with two-straight goals to cut into the Sagehens' lead, but Kaplan, Peterson and Schoenwald got the lead up to seven goals at 9-2. The Leopards added one more goal before halftime as they matched the Sagehens for goals in the second quarter to head into the break with Pomona-Pitzer up 9-3.
Whiting, Green and Panos netted goals in the third to give the Sagehens a 12-5 lead while Koretsky, Perna, Whiting, Hughes and Plaschke ended the game with goals in the fourth to give Sagehens the big win over La Verne.
Pomona-Pitzer 10, CMS 9
The Sagehens had three players with two goals as Peterson, Sam Sasaki and Ben Sasaki all shared a team-high while Green, Koretsky, Conrad Hugar, and Plaschke netted one each.
A rematch of the 2021 Division III National Championship on opening weekend as the Sagehens and Stags met for the first time this season in a non-conference bout at the Triton Invitational. The Sagehens and Stags alternated goals to start the game with Green netting the first goal for the Pomona-Pitzer before Ben Sasaki gave the Sagehens their first lead of the day at 2-1 with 6:33 left in the first. CMS rattled off three-straight goals to take a 4-2 lead in the first, but the Sagehens came back with back-to-back goals from Hugar and Sasaki to tie the game at 4-4 heading into the second quarter.
Peterson and Koretsky opened the second with goals for the Sagehens to take a 6-4 lead before the Stags responded with two of their own to tie the game again at 6-6. The Sagehens added two more goal with under a minute remaining by Ben Sasaki and Perterson to take a 8-6 lead into the fourth.
Plaschke pushed the lead to the largest of the night for Pomona-Pitzer at three goals with a 9-6 lead with 7:25 left in the fourth, but the Stags went on a run and netted three-straight goals to tie the game at 9-9 with 3:32 left to play in the fourth. Sam Sasaki played the role of hero in the first Sixth Street Rivalry of the season as he netted a late goal for Pomona-Pitzer to give the Sagehens a late win over conference rival CMS.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next compete in the Inland Empire Classic against Concordia and USC on Saturday, September 10th at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
