Claremont, Calif. (November 10, 2016)—The Pomona-Pitzer Men’s Water Polo team clinched the regular season SCIAC Championship with a 13-8 win over conference rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at Axelrod Pool on Wednesday. The No. 15 Sagehens defeated the Stags for the first time since 2012 and are currently undefeated in the conference with a 7-0 record this season.
Adam Ward (PO ’19), Mark Hallman (PO ’18) and James Baker (PO ’17) had a hat trick each. First-year player Joseph Schafer (PO ’20) chipped in with two and Tommy Turner (PO ’17) and Timmy Hardman ’17 scored one goal apiece. Goal keeper Daniel Diemer ’18 have 5 saves for the win. Diemer’s play between the posts has earned him two SCIAC Player of the Week awards so far this year.
The Sagehens jumped out to a big first quarter lead as they scored five of the first six goals of the match to take an early 5-1 lead. Each team responded with a goal each to end the first quarter as the Sagehens held a 6-2 lead.
The Stags won the second quarter as they outscored the Sagehens 2-1 and cut the lead down to 7-4 at the half.
CMS opened up the third quarter with two-straight goals and only trailed the Sagehens by one at 7-6 with 5:26 left in the third quarter but Pomona-Pitzer rallied and went on a 6-2 run to end the game and secured the 2016 SCIAC Regular Season Championship.
Head Coach Alex Rodriguez returned this season after a one-year sabbatical to lead the Sagehens to a conference championship.
The Sagehens will go on the road to face Chapman University in their last regular-season road game of the year on Saturday, November 12 at 11 a.m.
