GOODYEAR, Ariz. - The University of California, Merced men's water polo team dropped a pair of matches on day one of the NAIA Water Polo Finals on Friday morning, falling 21-3 to OUAZ and 28-4 to Westcliff University.
Friday marked the Bobcats (2-12) first ever meetings against NAIA opponents. OUAZ won the inaugural NAIA Water Polo Finals a season ago.
Devin Verma scored six of the Bobcats seven goals in the squad's first ever NAIA Water Polo Finals. Verma scored all four of the Bobcats goals against Westcliff and two of the team's three in Friday's opener against the host OUAZ.
Andrew Ore scored a goal against OUAZ and recorded an assist against Westcliff. Kai Etz also had an assist.
Other individual notables include four combined steals from Verma and two from Etz.
Ethan Chou logged all 64 minutes in net on the day and tallied 19 saves. Four of Chou's 19 saves came in the first quarter against OUAZ.
Up next, UC Merced will play OUAZ at 12:00pm on Saturday, November 5. The winner will advance to the NAIA Water Polo Finals Championship match against Westcliff at 3:30pm.
