U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. - #18 LMU Men's Water Polo fell in the closing seconds of the West Coast Conference matchup Thursday night at Air Force. The Falcons scored a game-winner with 12 seconds remaining on the clock to break an 18-18 tie to win by one.
 
Abel Romero Corbalan and Richie Rimlinger put the Lions ahead 2-0 in the opening 90 seconds of play. After Air Force tied the game at 2-all, Johnny Mendiburu pushed the Lions back on top. The Falcons took their first lead of the night by virtue of scoring the next two goals. Romero Corbalan tied the game at 5-5, but a goal with five seconds remaining in the quarter pushed the falcons on top after one.
 
Caden Poulleau tied the game on LMU's opening possession of the second quarter, but a goal by the home team on their first possession of the period pushed Air Force back on top, 6-5. The Lions scored three unanswered goals to take a two-goal lead as Baptiste Oliveri, Romero Corbalan, and Roman Saroyan all found the back of the cage. The two teams traded off the next four goals before the Falcons scored three straight to end the half and even the score at 11-11 heading into halftime. Richie Rimlinger and Soren Martin both gave LMU two-goal leads at different points of the period.
 
The Falcons opened the second half with a go-ahead goal just before the midway point of the third. Max Diaz tied the game with a converted powerplay goal, but the lead stood for less than a minute as Air Force jumped back on top. Caden Carpenter tied the game again at the 1:12 mark and that score remained setting up a final eight minutes for all the marbles.
 
On LMU's first possession of the fourth, Abel Romero Corbalan pushed LMU back on top briefly as the home team also scored in the first minute of the period to tie the game back up again. Roman Saroyan scored on the other end of the pool but again Air Force tied the game with still 6:05 to play. The Falcons scored three of the next four goals to push ahead by two with 3:20 remaining, with Romero Corbalan providing the lone goal for the Lions. Romero Corbalan then scored his seventh and eight goals of the night less than a minute apart to tie the game for the 13^th time with less than two minutes to play. After stops from both sides, Air Force scored the game-winner with 12 ticks remaining in the game to secure a 19-18 win.
 
Romero Corbalan finished with eight goals on 12 shots and two assists for 10 points. 
 
Stelios Dalmaras recorded five saves and five steals from the cage. Finn Friedland added one save an assist.
 
The Lions will celebrate senior day on Sunday at Burns Aquatics Center at noon.
 
Donate Today:
Fans interested in making a contribution to the Lions Athletic Fund can do so by clicking here. Your gift will help provide a transformational student-athlete experience athletically, academically, and culturally for every LMU student-athlete. We appreciate your continued support of LMU Athletics. 
 
Follow Along With The Action:
For complete coverage of Loyola Marymount University athletics, visit LMULions.com. We encourage you to follow along with all the action on social media as well. Follow along by following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook, and following us on Instagram.