Photos by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College men's Water Polo team finished 2015 10-1 in the friendly confines of the Lillian Slade Aquatic Center as they sent off their seven seniors with a 15-9 victory over the University of La Verne.
With the win the Poets finished the regular season off with a 17-11, 6-2 SCIAC record and are locked in as the No. 2 overall seed in the SCIAC Championships set to take place next weekend Friday-Sunday, November 21-23, hosted by La Verne.
The seniors Head Coach Justin Pudwill recognized before the game included Christian Sook (Hanford, Calif.), Gavin Kerr (Palo Alto, Calif.), Tony Martir (San Diego, Calif.), Shane Feldman-Scarr (San Diego, Calif.), Austin Ringheim (Los Alamitos, Calif.), Justin Pratt (Manhattan Beach, Calif.), and Eoghan Foley (Sterling, VA).
Chad Castro got the Leopards off with a goal 34 seconds into the contest but the Purple & Gold would rattle off four unanswered from Wedge Molthen (Buena Park, Calif.), SCIAC scoring leader Massimiliano Mirarchi (Rome, Italy) - 2, and Foley.
La Verne would pull within two at 5-3 in the second and would get back to back exclusions soon after but both possessions would be denied as the Poets would control the rest of the half adding another two from Molthen and Tyler Fields (Palo Alto, Calif.) that gave them a 7-3 lead at intermission.
Massi got the scoring started in the third in the first thirty seconds and Mihailo Vuja (Belgrade, Serbia) would add his first shortly after that helped Whittier top the Leos 5-3 in the period and despite a three goal effort by ULV in the fourth, it wouldn't be enough as Marino Fatovic (Dubrovnik, Croatia) and Ringheim would secure the victory with three of their own.
In goal, Andrew Wettstead (Fresno, Calif.) collected seven saves in the win, while Hernandez totaled five for the Leos.
