CMS Men's Water Polo Concludes Harvard Invitational with 12-10 Win over Iona

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team started the second half on a 3-0 run to take its largest lead at 10-6 and held on down the stretch for a 12-10 win over Iona on the final day of the Harvard Invitational on Sunday morning at Blodgett Pool.

With the win, the Stags now stand at 11-5 on the season with all five losses coming to Division I teams that are currently ranked in the top 13 in the nation, including No. 10 Harvard, No. 12 Brown and No. 13 Princeton in its first three matches of the Harvard Invitational (as well as No. 3 USC and No. 8 Pepperdine). CMS also has two Division I wins, a 6-5 win over Navy last weekend at the Gary Troyer Memorial Tournament, and this afternoon's win over Iona. 

Junior attack Zack Rossman led the CMS offense with three goals, while sophomore Robert Driscoll, sophomore Nick Britt and freshman Sam Harrison (pictured) each added two as well. 

Driscoll broke a 3-3 tie with a goal with 37 seconds left in the first quarter, and the Stags never relinquished the lead, although Iona closed it to within a single goal four times. Britt scored with 1:45 left in the half to make it a 7-5 game, but Iona answered 30 seconds later to close the deficit to 7-6 at the halftime break. 

Harrison kick-started the 3-0 third-quarter run with a goal 57 seconds into the second half, which was followed by Driscoll's second and Rossman's second to make it a 10-6 lead with 4:17 to go in the third. Iona scored the last goal of the third and the first goal of the fourth to close to 10-8, but Rossman finished off his hat trick with 6:50 to go to restore a three-goal lead. Iona scored two straight to get the deficit to a single goal for the final time at 11-10 with 3;25 to go, but the Stags rose to the challenge and Peter Blumberg's goal with 1:20 left made the final score 12-10. 

Senior Matt Daruty and sophomore Barron Banta added goals for the Stags, who had seven different goal-scorers on the day. 

CMS will be back in action when it gets back to SCIAC play with a road game at Occidental on Thursday, followed by a key road contest at Chapman on Saturday at 11 a.m.