CMS Men's Water Polo Finishes 3-1 in the Gary Troyer Tournament
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The CMS men's water polo team battled in the Gary Troyer Memorial Tournament and came away with a 13-4 win over the Washington & Jefferson Presidents, ending the weekend with a 3-1 record on Saturday at Axelrood pool after falling to the No. 12 Pepperdine Waves in the nightcap.
Theodore Pasquesi led the Stags with three goals, while Noah Weldon, Nick Maramica and Rob Driscoll scored two goals apiece against the Presidents.
CMS led 6-3 after the first period and never seemed to look back from there on. Driscoll, CJ Box and Pasquesi helped the Stags start the game on a 4-0 run, and after leading 6-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Stags allowed only one goal through the final 24 minutes of play, tightening up their defensive intensity by not allowing the Presidents to get in a rhythm.
Leading 8-3 at halftime, Noah Weldon found the back of the net 4:46 in the third, followed by Nick Maramica scoring to give the Stags a commanding 11-3 advantage.
After defeating Washington & Jefferson to improve to 3-0 on the weekend, the Stags closed out with the toughest test of their tournament slate against Pepperdine, which came in ranked No. 12 in the country. CMS hung tough throughout, taking an early 3-1 lead on a Cristian Pang goal, and keeping the game within 7-6 at the half, as Christian Thornton had a couple of late tallies in the second quarter.
The Stags then knotted the score 7-7 early in the third on Thornton's fourth goal of the night, before the Waves were finally able to create some separation with a 5-0 run to take a 12-7 lead. Will Clark added two fourth quarter goals, giving him three for the game, and CJ Box added one, but the Stags were forced to settle for a hard-fought 15-10 defeat to conclude a successful Gary Troyer weekend.
CMS will look to build from its momentum from this weekend when it plays a key SCIAC match against the Whittier Poets on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Axelrood Pool. CMS and Whittier met each other in both the SCIAC finals and the USA Water Polo Division III finals in 2019, with the Poets taking narrow wins in both.
