By Kendrick Mooney

Sports Information

WHITTIER – The Occidental men's water polo team kicked off its season against a pair of formidable opponents this weekend at the Whittier Open.

Game 1: Fresno Pacific 9, Occidental 6

Matt Weiser, Matt Munet, William Kim, Paul Bergevin, Nicholas Lakon and Dominic Rodriguez each tallied a goal in the first game. The game was evenly matched until the fourth quarter when leading scorers Kyle Madel and Garrett Pickford scored two goals.

Adam Florsheim had an outstanding day in the net with 15 saves for Oxy.

Game 2: Chapman 11, Occidental 8

Kim led the way with three goals. Rodriguez also had a strong showing with one goal, two assists, four steals, two blocks and one earned exclusion.

Florsheim had 13 saves and one steal.

Both games provided the Tigers an opportunity to play against quality competition and a good measurement of where their progress is so far.

"We played two tough teams and it's a great chance for us to figure out where we're at as we start to implement the different skills and tactics we've been working on the last couple of weeks." Oxy head coach Chris Lee said. "One really good sign for us is that we had six different goal scorers against FPU and five different scorers against Chapman."

Florsheim had a strong game and showed some of the strides he made during the offseason.

"This is the most excited I've been after the first weekend of games in my four years at Oxy," Florsheim said. "We have already made huge strides from last season."

Oxy returns to Whittier next Saturday to play Whittier and Loyola Marymount.