The University of Redlands men's water polo team came away with two victories while competing at this weekend's Claremont Convergence, which was hosted by Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps colleges. The Bulldogs notched wins against East Coast opponents, George Washington University (DC) and Johns Hopkins University (MD), but suffered losses to NAIA competitors, Concordia University-Irvine and Cal Baptist University.
In UR's Friday victory, the Bulldogs defeated the Colonels, 11-8, behind junior driver Patrick Roth's (Cottonwood Heights, UT) hat trick. The squad came out of the gate slowly, giving up the first two netters of the contest, before taking over the tempo of the game and surging ahead for the win. Including Roth, eight players found the back of the net for the Bulldogs. Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Tyler Abbott (Alta Loma, CA) patrolled the cage, picking up 11 saves.
The Bulldogs held on for a 13-12 victory against Johns Hopkins in a tight and exciting match. Traditionally one of the premier teams in Division III, Johns Hopkins put up a solid fight in a back-and-forth game. With the game tied at six all after two periods, Redlands put together a great third frame and capitalized on that momentum for the eventual victory. The trio of senior center Blake vanHartesvelt (Mercer Island, WA), sophomore driver Clint Freeman (Brentwood, CA) and senior driver Jeff Parsons (Newark, CA) ignited the offensive attack, combining for 10 of the Bulldogs' goals. Abbott once again provided a solid outing in the cage, collecting nine saves.
In other tournament action, Redlands fell to Concordia-Irvine and Cal Baptist with respective scores of 2-15 and 10-16.
The Bulldogs return to the Thompson Aquatic Center on Oct. 15 when it hosts two matches. To start off the day, the U of R opens up conference action against the Kingsmen of Cal Lutheran University at 11 a.m., followed by a 5 p.m. tilt against Gannon University (PA). In addition, Cal Lu and Gannon face off at 2 p.m.
