By: Andrew Shortall, Director of Athletics Communications
RIVERSIDE – For the first time in program history, California Baptist University men's water polo is headed to the Western Water Polo Association Championship game.
The Lancers earned their way there with a 10-6 win over sixth-ranked Loyola Marymount on Friday at the Lancer Aquatics Center. CBU got the result it wanted thanks to a dominant defensive performance and a solid, balanced offensive attack.
Loyola Marymount was held to six goals in the game, which tied for its season-low after first being held to six goals against the Lancers in game three of the four-game regular-season series on Feb. 6.
CBU improves to 6-4 this season and advances to face top-seeded and eighth-ranked Air Force in the WWPA Championship back at the Lancer Aquatics Center on Saturday at 1 p.m. The winner receives the WWPA's automatic bid to the
National Collegiate Water Polo Championship (Mar. 18-21).
"It's a great honor, the guys earned it that's for sure," said Coach
Kevin Rosa of advancing to the WWPA Championship round. "Things haven't been easy for anyone this year. It took some perseverance and hard work to get here. It feels good but now we have to come out tomorrow and play well."
Nine different players scored CBU's 10 goals on the day.
Joseph Griffin led the offense with two goals, while true freshman
Cameron Cullen led the team in points with four (three assists, one goal).
Hunter Barnett and
Riley Bumgardner both had three points on two assists and a goal.
Zach Lowery finished with a goal, assist, three steals and two sprints won.
Gabe Thorne continued to anchor the defense with 11 saves, two steals and an assist in the cage. The Lancers' field players swarmed to every ball and came away with 20 steals as a result. Bumgardner,
Zach Lowery and
PJ McDonough all came up with three steals, while
Angel Sanchez,
Caleb Teraoka and Joe Starr had two each.
"We had a tough week of practice, we had a little bit of rust from being off last week," Rosa said. "It prepared us for some adversity today; we didn't get frustrated. When the offense wasn't clicking, we were working our tails off on defense. With Gabe anchoring in the cage, it made the defense really good."
PLAY BY PLAY
CBU never trailed after scoring the first goal of the game on Friday.
Matt Olsen got the scoring started two minutes in with an easy goal off an assist from Barnett. Sanchez and Bumgardner also scored in the first quarter.
Loyola Marymount tied the game at 2-2, but Bumgardner and
Caleb Teraoka scored back-to-back CBU goals to make it a 4-2 lead for the Lancers. Cullen scored again for CBU with 20 seconds left in the half.
The Lancers shutout the Lions in the second quarter to give CBU a 5-2 advantage at halftime. Lowery and Griffin scored back-to-back goals to begin the third quarter to make it 7-2 Lancers with 11 minutes to play.
When LMU did manage to score in the second half, the Lancers always had a response. Barnett answered the Lion's third goal CBU's eighth to make it 8-3 going into the fourth quarter. Loyola Marymount notched the first goal of the final quarter, but consecutive goals from Griffin and McDonough pushed CBU's cushion to six, 10-4, with 6:20 to play.
NOTHING TO HIDE
Friday's win secured the series victory for CBU this season. The Lancers and Lions had split the previous four games between the two earlier this year. The Lions won the first and last games of this season's series by scores of 13-11 and 15-10. The Lancers won the middle games on scores of 13-7 and 14-6.
Saturday will mark the fourth time CBU and Air Force have met this season, with the three regular-season games coming at altitude in the Falcons' home pool in Colorado Springs. The Lancers defeated Air Force two out of three times this year (17-12 and 16-15), but the Falcons won the sole conference contest in overtime (15-14).
Safe to say, there were no secrets between CBU, Air Force or LMU coming into this week.
"They know what we're going to do and we know what they're going to do," Rosa said. "Who's going to execute? That's what it's going to come down to. Air Force is really good at running their set plays and putting themselves in position to be successful. We have to be ready for that and execute what we're going to do."
