California Baptist University
Fresno Pacific University (Calif.)
Making A Transition
10/19/2012 5:14:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
FRESNO, Calif. --- Thursday night was all about transition for California Baptist University men's water polo. The Lancers used their strong transition offense to score a lot of goals on the Sunbirds of Fresno Pacific University.
CBU defeated the Sunbirds 21-11 in front of a small crowd of Lancer fans, family members of the players from the Clovis area.
Head coach Rick Rowland noted that before the team really got going and shut down the Sunbirds , they had to adjust and transition their game to get used to the pool and the lights.
"It took us a little while to adjust," said Rowland. "But we shut them down in the second half, outscoring them 12-5."
Strong outlet passes from goalie Austen Ramer helped the Lancers score about half of their goals in transition, and there were a lot of goals.
Scott Gleason led CBU with five goals, Keith Jizmejian had four, Eric Carnohan had three and six other Lancers tacked on goals, helping CBU run away with the victory.
Passing was not the only thing that Ramer was able to do to help the Lancers, he also picked up 15 saves, three steals and two assists.
"Ramer had another great game," said Rowland. "He closed them out in the fourth quarter."
The Lancers were able to have such a strong second half due to their shutdown defense, which only allowed one FPU goal in the fourth quarter.
CBU also had the advantage in 6-on-5 scoring, putting the ball in the cage 50 percent of the time (4-8), while the Sunbirds only scored once in five tries.
"We played great second half defense," said Rowland. "We took away what they wanted to do, and we were able to turn it in to what we wanted."
The win puts the Lancers at 12-7 on the season, a mark that they hope to improve upon this weekend at the Santa Clara Rodeo tournament.
CBU will face No. 12 Brown, No. 17 Bucknell and No. 19 Santa Clara over the course of two days. The Lancers went 2-1 at the 2011 Santa Clara Rodeo, with their only loss coming to Santa Clara 11-10.
