CLAREMONT, Calif. (Oct. 17, 2009) – The 2009 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener did not turn out how the Occidental College men's water polo team had hoped it would as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps handed them an 11-5 loss at Axelrod Pool on a sunny Saturday morning.

Trailing just 5-4 at the intermission, Occidental was out-scored 6-1 in the final two quarters of action to fall to 5-11 on the season.

The Stags stopped the red hot Austen Oliver who provided just one goal and was limited to three shots. However, he was able to help out in other areas with a pair of assists, steals and drawn ejections. Greg Benz was the leading scorer in the game with two and Joey Reynolds and Richard Dybas accounted for the other two goals. Reynolds led all Tigers with three drawn ejections and Benz had two as well.

Although Oxy earned eight 6-on-5 opportunities, they were only able to capitalize on one of them.

Brendan Whitmore recorded the only field block of the game while goalie Max Kelly made 19 saves in front of the cage despite surrendering 11 goals.

Occidental travels to Chapman University on Sunday, Oct. 18 to play the Panthers in a non-conference match set to begin at 1:00 p.m.