Water Polo Splits a Pair of Home Games

Bronx, N.Y. – In a pair of games separated by seven hours, the Fordham water polo squad split the day, defeating Johns Hopkins, 13-8, before falling to 17th-ranked Bucknell in the nightcap, 14-8, in the Messmore Aquatic Center.
 
With the split, Fordham goes to 11-13 overall on the year, 3-5 in MAWPC competition.
 
In the first game of the day, Demitris Koukias led the Rams with three goals while Jake Miller-Tolt, Tristen Knoflick, Phillip Wang and Magnus Sims each netted two with Miller-Tolt adding two assists and two steals while Bailey O'Mara made nine saves in net for the Rams.
 
Fordham jumped out to a 2-0 lead on tallies by Ian Watson and Sims midway through the first quarter but the Blue Jays battled back, tying the game at three with 6:19 left in the second. The Rams then scored seven unanswered goals over the remainder of the second quarter and the first seven minutes of the third to take a commanding 10-3 lead. Knoflick scored two of the seven goals in the run.
 
Johns Hopkins managed to get it to a four-goal game, 12-8 with 4:40 remaining but the Rams kept the Blue Jay scoreless the rest of the way.
 
In the second game of the day, Watson tallied two goals and six other players scored once as the Rams fell to the ranked Bison.
 
Bucknell led 5-2 after the first quarter and bumped the lead to 6-2 early in the second before taking a 7-4 lead at the break.
 
Goals from Watson and Sims in the first two minutes of the third quarter helped the Rams pull within one, 7-6, but the Bison netted five of the next six goals scored to take a 12-7 lead after three.
 
Miller-Tolt scored just over a minute into the fourth to make it a 12-8 game but that was as close as Fordham would get.
 
Miller-Tolt added four assists to go with a goal and he had a pair of steals while O'Mara recorded six saves for Fordham.
 
The Rams close out the weekend by hosting La Salle University in a conference matchup in the Messmore Aquatic Center at 11:00 a.m.