UCSD Pulls Away In Second Half, Takes Home-Opener From CMS

CLAREMONT, Calif. – In its home-opener against UC San Diego, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team lost 17-12 at Axelrood Pool on Friday afternoon. CMS is now 0-3 on the season while UCSD is now 3-2 overall.

The Stags kept the game within a goal or two deficit until the three minute mark of the third quarter. With 2:40 left in the third quarter, Tician Toplak scored in what became a game-deciding, 3-0 run by UCSD to take a 12-8 lead. CMS got within three scores at 12-9 and 13-10 on goals by sophomore attacker Daniel Cogan and junior utility Mark Nietzel in the fourth quarter, but UCSD pushed its lead back up to as many as six goals.

For the first 10 minutes of the match, CMS played UCSD even as the score was tied at 4-4 with 6:30 remaining in the first half on a goal by sophomore attacker Alex Poltash. Less than a minute later, Matt Michalko gave UCSD the lead for good with 4:49 left in the half.

Sophomore attacker Tanner Cullen had four goals for CMS with three coming in the first half. Cogan and freshman Eric Bakar each had two scores. Toplak led the UCSD attack with four scores, two in each half.

Next up for CMS are matches on Saturday, Sept. 14 vs. UCLA and UC Santa Barbara.

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