LA JOLLA, Calif. – The 2018 season is underway as the Loyola Marymount men's water polo team opened the new year that UCSD Triton Invitational. LMU (1-1) picked up both a win and a loss on Saturday, topping Redlands (0-2), 15-5, after beginning the day with a loss to UC Santa Barbara (2-0), 9-6.
Game 1: UCSB 9, LMU 6
The Gauchos scored first, but the Lions were quick to answer as
Dayne Jagga scored at the 3:30 mark in his return to the lineup.
The score line held at 1-1 until Santa Barbara rattled off six consecutive goals in the second and third quarters to take a 7-1 advantage.
LMU capitalized on back-to-back goals to end the third period, with
Eric Reitmeir and
Alexandros Athymaritis each scoring their first following their redshirt seasons.
The Lions opened the third with a second Jagga goal to cut the deficit to 8-4. UCSB answered with two straight to rebuild their lead, with
Joseph Shaw scoring a final goal in LMU's last possession to make it a 9-6 final.
Game 2: LMU 15, Redlands 5
The Lions never trailed in their second game of the day. After building up a 3-0 lead, LMU closed out the opening quarter ahead, 5-1.
Dayne Jagga opened the scoring, following by
Alexandros Athymaritis and
Eric Reitmeir before Redlands got on the board. Reitmeir and Athymaritis closed out the period with another goal apiece.
LMU continued to build the lead in the second quarter, scoring the first four goals.
Alex Davis opened the period with his first goal as a Lion, with Athymaritis following with his third of the day.
Matt Braun and
Matthew Knoedler each scored in the period to make it 9-1 before the Bulldogs added one to go into the half trailing 9-2.
Redlands scored the opening goal of the third quarter with a goal that was quickly answered by Braun just 13 seconds later.
Joseph Shaw and Knoedler pushed the lead to 12-3 before the Bulldogs scored in the period's final seconds.
LMU added three unanswered in the final quarter, after Redlands opened the fourth with one, to make it a 15-5 final. Chrisitan Huhn,
Austin Clark, and
Daniel Roth each scored their first goals of the season in the quarter.
Coming Up Next
The Triton Invitational continues on Sunday as LMU will open the day at 9:45 a.m. against Cal Baptist (1-1) then close out the tournament at either 1:45 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. depending on results.
