LA VERNE, Calif. — The Occidental Men's Water Polo team jumped into the 2011 season at the Inland Empire Classic this weekend, with matches against the University of La Verne, Long Beach State, Concordia University, and Whittier College. Despite a strong effort and some outstanding individual contributions, Oxy fell short in all four contests.
Occidental College-7 La Verne-9
The Tigers opened the weekend with a hard fought 9-7 loss to La Verne at the Leopards home pool. The two teams traded goals in the first quarter with Oxy team captain Tai McDermott, netting the lone score for the Tigers.
La Verne would open the second quarter with back to back goals and head into half-time with a 4-2 advantage. The Leopards increased the lead to 8-4 after three quarters of play, and then the Tigers mounted a fourth quarter rally.
After La Verne scored the opening goal of the fourth to go up 9-4, Oxy would convert three times over a two-minute span to cut the lead to two goals. La Verne managed to hold off the Oxy charge as the Leopards stopped two point blank attempts in the closing minute.
Tigers head coach Larry Zubrin felt the Tigers let too many opportunities slip away.
"We were too tentative on the offensive end," Zubrin said. "We had our opportunities, but we'd hesitate at the right moment and turn a high percentage shot into a low percentage shot."
Shooting was an issue throughout for Oxy as they scored on seven of 30 attempts. Sam Akiyama was one of the lone bright spots in the contest, scoring four goals in his Oxy debut.
Box Score: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
Oxy 1 1 2 3 7
ULV 1 3 4 1 9
Goals:
OXY-Akiyama-4, Summy-1, Reynolds-1, McDermott-1
ULV-Hargis-2, MacKay-2, Thorsness-2, Gant-1, Jarvis-1, Villapando-1
Saves:
OXY-Reuther-4, Churchman-4
ULV-Jones-5, Newall-7
Occidental College-4 Long Beach State-17
The Tigers shooting woes continued into the second game of the tournament against Long Beach State. Oxy managed just four goals on 18 attempts in a 17-4 loss to the 49ers.
Brendan Whitmore led Occidental with two scores, while teammates McDermott and Joe Reynolds chipped in with one goal each.
LBSU led 5-0 after the first quarter, and pulled ahead 9-0 at the half, before the Tigers even managed to get on the board. Oxy cut the 49er lead to 10-3 in the third quater, before Long Beach pulled away in the fourth.
The resulte didn't show it, but Zubrin felt his team improved from their previous loss.
"Although we still weren't converting opportunities, I think it was more a matter of the opponent simply being more talented and experienced. We were making the right decisions, and as the season progresses and we'll see better results."
BOX SCORE 1st 2nd 3RD 4TH TOTAL
OXY 0 0 3 1 4
LBSU 5 4 1 7 17
GOALS:
OXY-Whitmore-2, McDermott-1, Reynolds-1
LBSU-n/a
SAVES:
OXY:-Churchman-8
LBSU-n/a
Occidental College-8 Concordia-16
Game 3 of the tournament didn't get any easier for the Tigers
Oxy lost to Concordia 16-8, but Zubrin felt the team again took a step forward.
A slow start, in which Oxy missed their first 10 shots on goal, led to a 7-0 Concordia lead early in the second period. From there the Tigers seemed to turn the corner, as they would convert on eight of their next 12 attempts the rest of they way.
Down 10-3 at the half, the Tigers played even with the Eagles in the third quarter, and were outscored by one in the fourth. Zubrin was pleased with the way his team stayed in the game in spite of the early deficit against one of the top 15 teams in the country.
"Concordia is a strong team, and they definitely out played us, but if you look at the score through the last three quarters, it was a two goal game," Zubrin said. That's encouraging, and shows that guys were responding well to what we were telling them."
Even more encouraging was the number of Oxy players getting in on the attack. Six different Tigers found the back of the net in the contest with Tai McDermott '12 and Richard Dybas '12 leading the team with two goals apiece.
Also chipping in with one goal apiece were Dan Seagren '13, Brendan Whitmore '12, Sam Akiyama '15, and Dylan Rothwell '15.
BOX SCORE: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
Oxy 0 3 2 3 8
CUI 6 4 2 4 16
GOALS:
Oxy-Dybas-2, McDermott-2, Rothwell-1, Akiyama-1, Seagren-1, Whitmore-1
CUI-Belarmic-2, Pril-2, Hamilton-2, Abbes-2, Hurley-1, Fuller-1, Bialik-1, Grubisic-1, Ivanoski-1, Antal-1, Simmons-1, Wright-1
SAVES:
Oxy-Reuther-7
CUI-Freerks-11
Occidental College-7 Whittier College-9
The final game of the weekend proved to be a barn burner as two SCIAC rivals played a heated back and forth match before Whittier came away with a come from behind win.
The Oxy defense was stellar through the first half and the offense continued to show signs of improvement as the Tigers jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two quarters of play.
In the third quarter the momentum shifted towards the Poets. After the two teams traded goals early in the third, Whittier would score on their next four possessions to take a 5-4 lead heading into the final quarter.
The Tigers got back on track scoring the first two goals of the fourth quarter to re-take the lead. Whittier then answered with two more goals of their own to go up 7-6 with just over three minutes to play. At the 1:30 mark Brendan Whitmore '12 drew an exclusion, one of four drawn on the game for the Oxy senior. After a time-out, Sam Akiyama '15 converted on a cross pass from Tai McDermott to tie the score at seven with just over a minute to play.
Whittier came back on the next possession to convert a man advantage goal of their own and added a final score in the closing seconds to preserve the win. Although disappointed, Zubrin was pleased with the Tigers improvement throughout the tournament. "The second half of that game was frustrating. We had plenty of chances to put the game out reach and we failed to so, but overall I was pleased with the way we improved throughout the weekend. We'd make mistakes, learn from them, and get better each time out. As a coach, that's exactly what you're looking for at this point in the season."
BOX SCORE: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
OXY 1 2 1 3 7
WC 0 0 4 5 9
GOALS:
Oxy-Akiyam-3, Reynolds-2, Whitmore-1, McDermott-1
WC-n/a
SAVES:
Oxy-Reuther-4, Churchman-4
WC-n/a
