Momentum in the Making

Friday, November 13

Irvine, Calif.

12:00 PM

California Baptist University

Concordia

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

11/13/2015 3:49:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

IRVINE, Calif. – After finishing strong to pull out a win on its Senior Day, California Baptist University started strong to spoil Concordia's final home game of the season, scoring the first five goals of the game en route to a 15-10 victory.

CBU ends the regular season with a 16-12 record to guarantee itself its first winning record since transitioning to the NCAA in 2013. Concordia ends its season with a 3-15 record.

"We had a good week of practice this week, it was intense and driven because we knew what we needed to work on," Coach Kevin Rosa said. "Our defense was obviously was really good, and when our defense is good it makes us look good on offense with our counter attack, and that's what happened today."

The 19^th-ranked Lancers have also accrued some momentum heading into the Western Water Polo Association Championships, which they enter as the No. 7 seed, with a first-round game against No. 2 seed and 14^th-ranked Loyola Marymount Friday at 12:30 p.m. The Lions defeated CBU 13-11 in Riverside on Oct. 29^th, but the Lancers out scored them in the second half.

"It's nice to have two wins underneath our belt here, along with a solid week of practice, heading to WWPAs," Rosa said. "That was good, what we worked on in practice this week came out in the game. We feel good facing up against LMU; we felt like we had a chance to beat them but just didn't start well. We just need to play four solid quarters against them."

Joseph Moorman had 14 saves in three quarters against Concordia. Hat tricks came from Tucker Angelo, Clint Walling and Brent Teraoka in the CBU win, as well.

"It was a balance on offense, to have three guys have hat tricks, that's pretty well spread out," said Rosa, who also had two goals from Tanner Shore and David Ring. "Obviously, on the counter, it's always going to be someone different, everyone is going to have chances depending on how it develops."

CBU's counter was working to perfection over the first nine minutes, 30 seconds Friday, as the Lancers scored the first five goals. Teraoka notched two of the first three, sandwiched around a Walling tally, and a Tanner Shore goal with two seconds left made it 4-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Moorman had six of his blocks in the first quarter alone, which drew praise from Rosa.

"Joseph, in the first half, was huge," Rosa said. "We only gave up one goal but it wasn't because they didn't have chances. He played really well."

Spencer Shore scored 1:30 into the second to make it 5-0 before the Eagles got on the board with 4:04 to go in the first half. The lead grew to six, 8-2, with 4:00 remaining in the third quarter after Thomas Henline and Walling scored in the early going of the frame.

CUI would pull within five, 10-5, going in the fourth quarter. The Lancers finished liked they started, with Angelo and Walling providing the first two goals of the fourth to give the Lancers a 12-5 lead with 6:17 to play. Angelo, Teraoka and Tanner Shore sent CBU on another 3-0 run that gave it an insurmountable 15-8 lead with 2:48 to go.