NEW LONDON, Conn. — The Connecticut College men’s water polo team honored seniors Liam Merrill (Glastonbury, Conn.), Siaki Nelson (Montgomery, Texas) and Jonathan Rojas (Houston, Texas) before defeating visiting Wheaton College, 23-13, on at Lott Natatorium. With the victory, Conn improves to 7-11.
It was a slow opening quarter as both teams only tallied two goals apiece. Wheaton opened the scoring, before back-to-back goals for Connecticut from Rojas and Carson Neidert (West Palm Beach, Fla.) put the Camels in front. However, with just seconds left in the quarter, the Lyons got an equalizer as the game was tied at two-all after eight minutes.
Wheaton opened the second quarter with two straight goals to take a 4-2 edge. However, Conn responded with a 7-0 run to jump in front. During the run Jesse Ellis (Fresno, Calif.) tallied three goals, Jeffrey Harrington (San Diego, Calif.) added two, while Keegan Kosiba (Birmingham, Mich.) and Paul Podrebarac (Friendswood, Texas) recorded one goal each. The Lyons ended the run with a goal themselves, but a marker from Nelson made it 10-5 entering halftime.
The Camels did not look back in the second half, outscoring Wheaton 13-8 over the final 16 minutes.
In the second half, Connecticut got three goals from Nelson, two each from Ethan Hipsky (Glastonbury, Conn.),Thomas McDonough (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and Cormac Stevens (Philadelphia, Pa.) along with single tallies from Harrington, Merrill, Augie Loredo (Houston, Texas) and Sebastian Parilov (Brooklyn, N.Y.) to come away with the 23-13 win.
Parilov got the start in goal, playing the first half, before Artem Kyselov (Dnipro, Ukraine) played the third quarter. Isaac Merwin (Houston, Texas) closed out the contest by handling the fourth quarter.
The victory marks the third of the season for Connecticut versus Wheaton as the Camels claimed 22-8 (September 8) and 23-13 (October 23) wins on the road in Norton, Mass., earlier in the campaign.
Information courtesy Connecticut College Athletics Communications
