Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
Article by: Hannah Ellett
WHITTIER, Calif. - The Whittier College men's water polo team earned their second straight Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) win of the season Wednesday afternoon as they rolled to the 15-5 victory over the Tigers of Occidental College.
With the win the Poets improve to 13-12, 2-0 SCIAC, while Occidental drops to 5-18, 0-2 SCIAC.
Right from the opening whistle it was all Whittier thanks to three unanswered from Massimiliano Mirarchi (Rome, Italy), and then two goals late from Marko Monic (Zagreb, Croatia), and Aidan Tol (Tustin, Calif.) that put the Purple & Gold in front 6-1 after one quarter of play.
At the half the Poets led 8-2, with all three squads seeing significant playing time in the water. Oxy would tally two goals in the third quarter but had no answer for the Poet firepower as they would add another five, which included the final three scores of the frame to move the score to 13-4. In the final quarter, Whittier would add another two to make the deficit 10 and that would be enough to seal the lopsided victory at home.
In goal, Ryan Brunansky (Poway, Calif.) collected nine saves in just one quarter and was relieved by Christopher Ibarra (Cino, Calif.) and Andrew Wettstead (Fresno, Calif.) who combined for three saves in the final 24 minutes.
Currently sitting at 20th in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) varsity polls, the Poets barely fall behind California Baptist University (19) and Harvard University (18).
The Poets return to the pool next week on Wednesday, October 29 when they take on the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer in a big SCIAC match-up beginning at 7:00pm.
