LA JOLLA, Calif. — The Mercyhurst University men’s water polo team dropped games to No. 7-ranked Long Beach State University, 24-4, the University of La Verne, 20-17, on the second day of the University of California-San Diego’s Triton Invitational.
Facing Long Beach State at Canyonview Pool to start the stay, the Lakers fell behind 5-0 and were unable to recover.
Senior Petar Vujovic put an end to that scoring run by netting his second goal of the season to put the Lakers on the scoreboard. Senior Asher Jones added to Mercyhurst’s total with a goal of his own to narrow the Lakers’ deficit to three. However, LBSU gained momentum and scored five consecutive goals in closing out the first quarter with a 10-2 lead.
Long Beach State brought its first quarter momentum into the second frame by punching in six strikes to acquire a 16-2 lead halftime.
Leading 19-2 lead heading into the fourth quarter, LBSU scored another goal via a man-up chance to continue pulling away from Mercyhurst. The Lakers scored on their own powerplay as senior Ben Gavran tossed in a score. Long Beach responded with three goals of their own before freshman Bryce English scored his first collegiate goal to narrow the Lakers’ deficit. Long Beach got that goal back, however, in the waning seconds of the game to cap-off a 24-4 victory.
Squaring off with La Verne in the final game of the day for the Lakers, the Leopards tallied three goals within the first two minutes of the game to put Mercyhurst behind nearly from the start.
The Lakers responded with a goal from senior Asher Jones to narrow their deficit to a pair, but La Verne responded with three more goals to take a 6-1 lead. Freshman Kane Macklin responded with a goal for Mercyhurst to reduce the Leopards’ lead. Within the last minute of the quarter, the two teams traded goals with Macklin scoring his second for Mercyhurst. The Lakers then proceeded to score two more goals with both coming from Vujovic as Mercyhurst trailed 7-5 following one quarter of action.
The Leopards pounced for four goals to commence the second quarter prior to the Lakers responding with three consecutive goals with the first coming from sophomore Declan Puacz. The second one came from sophomore Aiden Botterill, while the third came via freshman Mason Grzybowski. With under a minute remaining, the Leopards scored another goal to acquire a 13-8 halftime lead.
Mercyhurst opened up the third quarter with three consecutive goals to shrink its deficit. The first goal of the second half came from Gavran, while Vujovic tallied his third goal of the game to notch a hat-trick. Botterill scored his second goal of the game to narrow their deficit to two. La Verne scored three of their own to take a 16-11 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Leopards continued putting their offense on display with two goals to open the final eight minutes of regulation. Freshman Peter Bodoki put an end to that scoring streak with a goal for the Lakers. Macklin scored his third goal of the contest to complete a hat-trick and Jones registered his second goal of the game to reduce the Leopards’ lead to four markers. La Verne answered back with a strike before the Lakers scored one from the hands of Macklin to remain within striking distance.
La Verna scored yet another goal, but the Lakers responded with two more tallies from Vujovic and Grzybowski to stay on the cusp on a comeback. However, Mercyhurst ran out of time to suffer a 20-17 setback.
Information courtesy Mercyhurst University Athletics Communications
