REDLANDS, Calif. — The Occidental College men's men's water polo team pulled out all the stops only on Saturday to fall short in a close SCIAC match against the University of Redlands.
The No. 2 Bulldogs jumped on the board early against the No. 9 Tigers, with a goal on their very first possession of the game. However, the tone of the match was set on Oxy's ensuing possession when Joe Reynolds (Souderton, PA) netted a shot from eight meters out to tie the game. Reynolds paced the Tigers with two goals in the game.
Redlands would respond a few minutes later with back-to-back scores in just under 30 seconds to take a 3-1 lead, but it was the Tigers ending the quarter with a skip shot goal by Jalen Lubbers (Grandville, MI) to cut the Bulldog lead to one after one quarter.
Oxy tied the game at three in the second with a Kevin Coleman counter attack goal 45 seconds seconds into the quarter. Redlands bounced back with two quick scores to go up 5-3, before Oxy once again closed the quarter with a goal to cut the lead to one, this time it was the red-hot Jack Stabenfeldt (Larkspur, CA) scoring for Oxy on a power play shot—Stabenfeldt has now scored eight goals in the Tigers last three games, including back to back hat-tricks against Whittier College and UC San Diego.
Leading by one heading into the third quarter, Redlands would build their biggest lead of the contest. The Bulldogs scored first in the third, only to be answered by a Kirk Follete (Santa Monica, CA) power play goal less than a minute later. Still up by one, Redlands would manage two more goals in the quarter including one in the final minute of the period to go ahead 8-5 heading into the fourth.
The Tigers refused to go quietly though. Midway through the final frame, Sam Akiyama (Aptos, CA) scored for Oxy after a time-out to cut the Bulldog lead to two. Then, just under two minutes later the Tigers closed the gap to one on Reynolds' second score of the game. That was as close as the Tigers could get though, as Redlands added a late goal in the closing minute before running down the clock and persevering the win.
In spite of the loss Occidental coach Larry Zubrin was pleased with the team's performance.
"The guys put up a gritty effort today and I'm proud of the way we played." Zubrin said. "There's no question we played well enough to win this one, unfortunately the score doesn't show it. What's important is we're playing good water polo at the right time."
The Tigers are back in the pool Oct. 26 as they'll hit the road to play a SCIAC match against Caltech at 5 p.m.
