Lewisburg, Pa. – (September 18, 2022) – It was an early start on Sunday, but the 17
th-ranked Fordham Rams found a way to finish off a perfect 4-0 weekend of water polo action at the Bison Invitational.
Starting with a 9:20 AM game, Fordham (8-3) outlast the Wagner Seahawks by a 12-11 count.
The closely fought match was tied at nine in the third quarter before
Jacopo Parrella and
Nir Gross scored consecutive goals for the Rams for an 11-9 lead.
Wagner closed the gap to one just before the end of the third, but the Rams got an extra-man goal from
Christos Loupakis in the fourth to go back up by two. The Seahawks again pulled within one as 12-11 with 2:47 left. Fordham held off the late charge and killed off a man-advantage opportunity with under 30 seconds to play to hold on for the win.
For Fordham, Gross and Parrella each tallied three goals in the match with Loupakis and
Lucas Nieto Jasny each having two.
Curtis Vidinoff and
Gabriel Melillo rounded out the scoring.
The second match of the day saw Fordham explode for 15 goals over the final two periods to take home a 24-12 win over Salem.
With the score at 9-8 at halftime in favor of Fordham, the Rams scored six times in the third quarter to Salem's two to take control of the game at 15-10. Fordham then put an exclamation point on the match, netting nine goals in the final period.
In that match,
George Papanikolaou and
Balazs Berenyi led the way with four goals each with Nieto Jasny, Mellilo, and
Victor Schultz scoring twice each. In net,
Thomas Lercari racked up 16 saves to go with two assists.
Fordham will now head west for the MPSF Invitational, hosted by Stanford University, from September 23-25. The Rams open play against #3 USC on Friday, September 23
rd, with #6 UC Davis or #12 UC Irvine as a possible opponent on Saturday, September 24
th. The final match on Sunday, September 25
th will be determined based on other results in the Invitational.
