LOS ANGELES — Senior Joe Reynolds (Souderton, Pen.) led the men's water polo team to their first SCIAC victory of the season, in his final game at Taylor Pool.
Reynolds, playing in his 112th consecutive game as a Tiger, led a balanced attack against Caltech, with five goals including three in the first quarter.
The lefty attacker added five steals and three assists in the game, while fellow senior and co-captain Scott Churchman anchored the defense with 11 saves and three steals in Oxy's 15-9 win over the Beavers on Saturday.
The Tigers scored the game's first three goals — two by Reynolds on power plays, and one by Sam Akiyama (Aptos, CA) — on a breakaway to take the early lead. Akiyama finished with a hat-trick of his own.
Caltech battled back with a goal after a time out, and when Reynolds notched his third goal of the quarter, the Beavers responded again with a goal to cut the Tiger lead to two after the first.
The Beavers came out strong in the second quarter, scoring three unanswered goals to take their first lead of the game. The two teams would then exchange a goal apiece to keep Caltech in front by one, 6-5.
Then the Tigers took over. Oxy scored four consecutive goals to end the quarter and take a 9-7 lead into the half.
The Tigers defense continued to apply pressure, holding Caltech to just two goals in the second half as Oxy pulled away for the win.
Jack Stabenfeldt (Larkspur) and Nick Heffner (La Jolla) each added three goals for Oxy, while Kirk Follette (Santa Monica) rounded out the scoring with a goal.
The Tigers (6-20, 1-7) and the Beavers (4-19, 0-8) both advance to the SCIAC Tournament and face each other again on Friday for the play-in game as the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, respectively. The winner of that game will advance to face the No. 1 seed while the loser will advance to a consolation bracket.
The tournament, hosted by Whittier, runs Nov. 9-11.
BOX SCORE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th TOTAL
Occidental 4 5 3 3 15
CIT 2 5 2 0 9
GOALS SCORED:
Occidental-Reynolds-5, Akiyama-3, Heffner-3, Stabenfeldt-3, Follette-1
CIT-Penserini-3, Eck-2, JaBlackwood-2, Kwong-1, MacDonald-1
SAVES:
Occidental-Churchman-11
CIT-Grabowski-8
