Water Polo Improves to 4-0 on West Coast Swing

Claremont, Calif. – (October 4, 2019) – The Fordham water polo team continued their impressive run this season with a pair of victories at the Gary Troyer Invitational on Friday, improving to 4-0 on its West Coast road swing.
 
With the wins, Fordham is now 14-3 on the year.
 
In game one, Fordham avenged a one-goal overtime loss from last season, as the Rams defeated the 16^th-ranked Cal Baptist Lancers, 11-10, in overtime.
 
With the score tied at six early in the fourth quarter, Dimitris Koukias netted back-to-back goals to give Fordham an 8-6 lead.  The Lancers pulled within one with 37 seconds left, before eventually regaining possession with five seconds left.  That short amount of time was enough as the Lancers scored with one second left to force overtime.
 
In overtime, with the score knotted at ten, Fordham drew a penalty shot with under a minute to play.  Jake Miller-Tolt would score on the penalty shot, giving Fordham an 11-10 lead.  On the ensuing possession, Tristen Knoflick came up with the game-clinching steal for the Rams, as Fordham was able to run out the clock.

 
For Fordham, it was the team's third win over a ranked opponent this season, and the first-ever win over Cal Baptist in 11 meetings.  Individually, Miller-Tolt and Koukias each had three goals with Miller-Tolt added three assists and two steals.  Phillip Wang added two goals and three assists with Knoflick, Oscar Nomura, and Sam Wheeler each having one goal.  In net, Bailey O'Mara was the star of the game with 17 saves in net to go with two steals.
 
In game two, the Rams pulled out to a big lead against Occidental and never looked back in a 13-3 win.
 
Fordham led by seven goals before Occidental cracked the scoreboard, and went on to win by ten.
 
For Fordham, Miller-Tolt had his second hat trick of the day, while Wheeler, Gordon Rowland, and Jason Hiremath each had a pair of goals.  Other tallies were registered by Wang, Quinn Wagner, Skyler Knoflick, and Stephen Judge.  In net, O'Mara made seven saves in 2.5 quarters with Aldo Ordoñez also having seven stops in the final 1.5 quarters.
 
The Fordham water polo team wraps up action at the Gary Troyer Invitational on Saturday with two matches against #9 UC San Diego at 2:40 PM and Chapman at 6:40 PM.