NEW LONDON, Conn. — The Connecticut College men’s water polo team competed against four schools during the Connecticut College Invitational on Saturday-Sunday, September 15-16, at Lott Natatorium. The young squad, which consists of five freshmen on its 12-player roster, dropped games against Penn State Behrend (12-10 L), Gannon University (20-8 L), Division III No. 8-ranked California Lutheran University (20-7 L) and Iona College (16-9 L).
The Camels were the most competitive in their opening match of the weekend on Saturday, September 15, against the Lions of Penn State Behrend. Connecticut either led or was tied with Penn State Behrend for the entirety of the match.
Junior Rahul Gill (Bethesda, Md.) broke a 1-1 tie before Arturo Freitas (Jr., Weston, Fla.) recorded back-to-back goals to give the hosts a 4-1 cushion to work with at the 3:23 mark of the opening quarter. Gill completed a hat trick shortly before the end of the second quarter, and the Camels led 8-5 at the break.
Penn State Behrend then regrouped and fought back in the second half.
After the third quarter was controlled by the defenses, the Lions made their move in the fourth quarter and tied the game up at 9-9 with 5:52 remaining in the game. Junior Sean King (La Canada, Calif.) put Connecticut College back ahead just 20 seconds later at 5:32, but the visitors needed just 11 seconds to tie the match up again at 10-all.
Collin Holmes completed the comeback for the Lions by netting two straight goals to hand the Camels a two-score loss.
In Connecticut’s second game on September 15, Gannon cruised to a 7-0 advantage and led from wire-to-wire.
Freshman Lucas Verrilli (Evanston, Ill.) put the hosts on the board in the last minute of the first quarter, but Gannon had another offensive outburst and led by twin figures at 13-3 heading into the break. The Golden Knights never let the Camels come any closer en route to the convincing 12-goal win.
In Connecticut College’s third game of the day, California Lutheran jumped out to an 8-1 advantage and never looked back. Trailing 10-2 at halftime, the Camels managed to score three goals in the third with two coming from King and another courtesy of Verrilli. However, the early deficit would prove to be too much for the Camels to overcome and the Kingsmen ran away for victory.
On Sunday, September 16, Connecticut tried to take advantage of the fact that they were competing against a fatigued Iona squad which had just wrapped up competing in an overtime match against Gannon.
The teams exploded for nine goals offensively in the first quarter and Connecticut College had a 5-4 lead through eight minutes of action thanks to getting five markers from Gill. The Camels held tough against the Division I Gaels to trail by a 7-6 score by halftime. However, Iona eventually caught fire and used an 8-0 run to pull away on the way to a seven-score victory.
Release courtesy Connecticut College Athletics Communications
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