Biola Overcomes Six-Goal Effort from Walker to Take Narrow 11-10 Win over CMS

LA MIRADA, Calif. - First-year Thomas Walker scored a career-high six goals, but Biola used a late 3-0 run to come away with a narrow 11-10 win over the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's water polo team on Friday afternoon at Splash! La Mirada.

With the loss, CMS slips to 10-13 overall on the season. The Stags also had a 15-10 exhibition win over Cuesta College, a two-year school, on Friday morning in which Walker scored five goals and added two assists. 

The Stags trailed 8-7 against Biola late in the third quarter, but Kyle Ballack was able to knot the score up with just one second left to even the game up at 8-8 going into the fourth. Just under one minute into the final period, Walker tallied his sixth of the game to give CMS the lead, and Luke (Bear) Weigle gave CMS an insurance goal with 5:24 to go to push the lead to 10-8. 

Biola, though was able to rattle off three goals in a row to take the late lead. Eli Schwarz came up with a steal on the final Biola possession to give the Stags one final chance, but Biola's Adam Lavoy denied a Stag pass for a steal of his own to end it. 

The Stags took a 5-4 lead into intermission, with Walker accounting for four of the five goals. Biola scored the first two goals of the second half, but Walker answered with his fifth, and Ballack answered another Eagles goal to tie it up at 7-7. 

Ballack finished with two goals and two assists for CMS, while Weigle added two goals, and Gavin Rosser had two assists. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday when it travels to La Verne for an important SCIAC contest as the Stags try to get back in the hunt for one of the top two seeds and an opening-round bye in the six-team SCIAC Tournament this year.