DAVIS, Calif. – A rivalry has been brewing between California Baptist University and UC Davis, and the pair of top-15 ranked opponents opened the Western Water Polo Association season against one another on Thursday night.

Despite a strong first half and a hat trick from CBU's Jonny Lotero, the ninth-ranked and defending WWPA champion Aggies pulled out a 12-9 victory at the Schaal Aquatics Center. The 15^th-ranked Lancers drop to 5-2, 0-1 in conference this year, while UC Davis improves to 5-2, 1-0.

CBU continued to make the extra pass on Thursday, with all nine of its goals coming on assists. Caleb Rogers led that effort with three, while six others contributed an assist, including goalie Matt Miller, who had 10 saves and a steal in the game.

"Matt played great in the first half, he had a bunch of saves for us," Coach Kevin Rosa said. "Our five-man defense was solid, we only gave up two goals on five-man situations."

Defense dominated early on, with neither side scoring three-and-a-half minutes into the game. Lotero got the Lancers on the board first when he sent home a goal off one of Rogers' assists.

On the next possession, CBU forced a turnover on an out of bounds, despite giving up an ejection. The turnabout led to a Kyle Rasmussen goal off a Tanner Shore pass for the Lancers at the 3:39 mark. The Aggies scored with 1:43 left to make it a 2-1 game going into the second quarter.

"We had a really good first half, the intensity was there and we were doing really good things," Rosa said. "Our positioning was right, we were helping each other, we were active on both offense and defense and playing well."

Lotero's second goal forced a 3-3 tie going into halftime, while his third knotted the game back up at 4-4 about a minute into the third quarter. Dominick Nevarez evened things at 5-5 off a Thomas Henline assist with 5:48 remaining in the frame.

The Aggies finally managed to create some separation and went into the final eight minutes holding a 9-6 lead, despite a goal from Joseph Galgani, which came on a Kyle Christian pass.

UC Davis ran its lead up to 12-6 before the Lancers took off on a ferocious pace and scored three times in the final 1:13, thanks to Royce Daniel Laverne, Luke Schuler and Christian. Lowery, Galgani and Rogers assisted on those respective goals.  

"The second half we lost a little bit of that intensity, we fell off a little bit and UC Davis is too good of a team to commit that step," Rosa said. "It was a great game in terms of showing us where we're at and where we need to improve. We need to be consistent; we had a great first half, now we've got to finish the game."

CBU is right back at it this weekend, with a pair of tough games on the schedule. The Lancers face fifth-ranked University of the Pacific Friday at 5 p.m. and then MIT at 8 p.m. in the Aggie Roundup. CBU wraps things up versus second-ranked USC Saturday at 9 a.m.

BOX SCORE