CMS Men's Water Polo Defeats Johns Hopkins, Falls in Overtime to Air Force

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team picked up a key Division III win over Johns Hopkins 14-10, but just missed a chance to sweep the day when it fell in sudden death overtime to Air Force in the finale of the Gary Troyer Tournament on Saturday.

With the split, CMS moves to 6-10 on the year as the No. 2 ranked team in Division III, while No. 4 Johns Hopkins falls to 7-10 and Air Force improves to 20-5 with the win after also taking No. 12 Pepperdine to overtime earlier in the day. 

Luke (Bear) Weigle had four goals in the Johns Hopkins win, while Cristian Pang had two goals and three assists and Eli Schwarz had two goals and two assists. 

Johns Hopkins hung in until late, as CMS led 10-8 heading into the fourth quarter. Weigle scored to make it 11-8, and Pang scored to stretch it to 12-9. After the Blue Jays scored to pull within 12-10, Ben Weldon and William Thomas finished the game off with goals to preserve the 14-10 win. Aidan Nettekoven had 10 saves for the Stags defensively. 

The Air Force loss proved to be a heartbreaker, as CMS nearly gave the Falcons their second loss of the year. After a wild sequence at the end of the first overtime, Air Force tied the game on a penalty shot from Bruce Kim with 27 seconds left, before Thomas Walker answered with a penalty shot with 13 seconds left to make it 13-12.

Jake Taylor made a huge save to force the ball over the end line with four seconds left, and Walker deflected the ensuing pass. But a common foul with one second left gave the Falcons a final chance and Jacob Yi scored at the buzzer to force the game into sudden death. 

After neither team scored in the first sudden death extra session, the teams switched ends, and Air Force was able to get a turnover as Cole Kopperud broke loose on a breakaway. Schwarz got back into the play from behind with great hustle and made the shot difficult, but Kopperud was just able to squeeze it through a deflection from Taylor and over the line for the game winner. 

CMS trailed 10-8 in the fourth quarter, but Kyle Ballack had a key goal with five minutes left and Weigle tied it with 3:09 left. Neither team was able to score after that, as Weigle was denied in close by A.J. Kuypers of Air Force, and then Kuypers came forward on the final Air Force possession to take a shot at the buzzer, but Taylor got a piece of it to send it to overtime. 

The Falcons scored first in overtime, but Walker and Schwarz had consecutive goals to give CMS the lead, before the late flurry ended up in Air Force's favor. 

Walker had four goals for the Stags, Ballack had three goals and two assists, and William Thomas had a goal and four assists. Taylor finished with 10 saves, including some big ones under pressure that gave the Stags a chance to win. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday for a SCIAC battle with La Verne at 7 p.m.