ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – The University of Redlands Men's Water Polo team advanced past the No. 3 seed Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Semi-Finals of the USA Division III Collegiate Men's Water Polo National Championships 15-6 Saturday earning a spot in the final for the second straight year.
The Bulldogs will now faceoff with No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps for the fourth time this season tomorrow, Sunday, December 3 beginning at 10:00am PST seeking their second straight national title. CMS beat host No. 4 Augustana College in the other Sem-Final 12-4.
It was a low scoring opening quarter with UR holding a slight 2-1 advantage thanks to Spencer Clinton (Cypress, CA) who connected twice. Redlands opened the game up following the second eight minute period as they outscored the Engineers 4-1 to take a 6-2 lead into the break. Nicolas Fedotov (Miami Beach, FL), Callum Norman (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Clinton went back-to-back-to-back to move the lead to 5-1 and Ron Gvishi (Kiryat Tivon, Israel) capitalized on a power-play to keep UR in front.
Out of the break the Bulldogs continued to pour on the offense outscoring MIT 6-2. They picked up the first three goals of the period from Andrew Higginson (San Diego, CA), Spencer Sellwood (Irvine, CA), and Norman. Aidan Murphy (Placentia, CA) added another at the 2:07 mark and Dean Moody (Camarillo, CA) and Gvishi would go back-to-back with a minute and a half left moving the score to 12-4.
Across the final eight minutes MIT would score twice, but that was after Alec Abrahamian (Glendale, CA) and Clinton would combine to push the lead to double digits. The final goal would come from Norman who would complete the hat-trick.
Redlands took 34 shots for the game with 12 assists and collected 27 points. They also had 11 steals and won all four sprints.
Roberto Barrera (Guanajuato, Mexico) played all 32:00 minutes between the posts tallying ten saves and two steals. Gvishi posted two goals and three assists, Sellwood with a goal and three assists, Norman with three goals and Clinton with four goals and two assists.
