THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (Sept. 27, 2025) – The Whittier College men's water polo team, ranked 10th in Division III, knocked off No. 5 California Lutheran University in a 14-12 road thriller on Saturday afternoon.
Right from the get-go, the Poets wasted no time in showing the Kingsmen they were coming to play. The visitors opened the game with a pair of goals, the first on a five-meter penalty shot from sophomore
Zander Montoya (La Verne, Calif. / Damien). From there, the Poets experienced a game of several momentum shifts and found themselves leaning on their defense and ability to get stops to seize back control. Another Montoya five-meter penalty helped kill a 3-0 Cal Lutheran run in the first quarter, opening the door for the Poets to reset and do some damage of their own.
Whittier ultimately found itself at its best when it mattered most: the fourth and final quarter. Strong goalkeeping from sophomore
Lorenzo Angelucci (Pescara, Italy / Serie B) kept a two-goal deficit between the two teams over the final eight minutes of play. A third Montoya five-meter penalty shot gave the Poets a comfortable three goal lead with just under two minutes to go in regulation, and the visitors were able to successfully able to ride that out to the finish line. Montoya was far from the only Poet contributor, however, particularly on offense. Classmate
Noah Bigara (Cape Town, South Africa / Pinnacle Schools) came through in a big way with four goals, while
Ethan Klerck (Cape Town, South Africa / South African First Division) scored three and junior transfer
Jaime Ariste (Madrid, Spain / South Eugene / Westcliff University | CIS Endicott International) came through with four assists in the field of play.
However, Angelucci's steadiness between the pipes had as much of a hand in the Poets' success on Saturday morning as any. The Italian goalkeeper turned back eight Cal Lutheran shots, and helped the Poets stand tall in the face of not only an elite SCIAC program, but one of the top Division III programs in the country.
Head Coach Preslav Djippov and the Poets will next face down an even tougher challenge when they host Division III No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.
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