SANTA CLARA, Calif. – The 11^th-ranked LMU men's water polo team split their final two games of Santa Clara's Julian Fraser tournament on Saturday. The Lions beat #15 Bucknell by a goal, 14-13, in the morning game and then dropped another tight one to Princeton, 14-12, in the afternoon session.
 
GAME 1 – LMU 14, Bucknell 13
 
Bucknell scored the game's opening goal, but David Carrasco and Alexandros Athymaritis responded with consecutive goals to give LMU the early 2-1 advantage. The Bison responded with consecutive goals of their own before Blazo Mitrovic evened the game with a 5-meter shot at the 1:15 mark. Bucknell added one more in the final six seconds to take a 4-3 lead after a quarter of play.
 
Mitrovic tied the game to open the second quarter before two straight Bucknell goals gave the advantage back to the Bison. Bucknell extended their lead to 6-4 before Athymaritis put an end to the run with two of the game's next three goals. Austin Clark would score the final goal of the half, cutting LMU's deficit to 8-7.
 
Athymaritis tied up the game in the opening minute of the third quarter, before the Bison scored again. LMU would not take the lead until the 2:44 mark following back-to-back goals by Carrasco and Daniel Roth. The score would be tied at 10, entering the third quarter.
 
The game would be tied at three different points in the final quarter. Mitrovic scored all four goals of the final quarter including the game-winner with 24 seconds remaining.
 
Game 2 – Princeton 14, LMU 12
 
David Carrasco, Alexandros Athymaritis, and Matthew Knoedler all scored for the Lions in the first quarter, but five first half goals allowed put LMU in an early deficit.
 
Consecutive goals by Austin Clark and Blazo Mitrovic to open the second quarter evened the score at 5-5. After the Tigers went up one, Carrasco scored the equalizer, but Princeton capitalized with the final two goals of half to hold an 8-6 advantage at intermission.
 
Princeton scored to open the third quarter before the Lions rattled off three straight goals to even the game at 9-9. Jonny Rimlinger scored twice and Joseph Cavazos scored his first of the day. The two teams would trade off the final four goals of the period, with Mitrovic and Carrasco scoring for LMU.
 
Carrasco would put the Lions ahead with the early lead in the fourth quarter with 6:42 remaining, before the Tigers closed out the game with three unanswered goals to decide the outcome.
 
 
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LMU returns to the pool on Thursday for a 6 p.m. conference game at Cal Baptist in Riverside.