IRVINE, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's water polo team dropped its first match of its SoCal trip, 19-15, on Friday night to Concordia University Irvine.

The Bobcats (2-23) scored first and overcame an early four-goal deficit to pull even just before halftime, but couldn't garner enough momentum to overtake the WWPA west leader CUI.

Eight different Bobcats scored at least once with Vincent Labonte holding team-high with four goals. Tommy Bauer had three goals for his first hat trick of the season, while Noah Hernandez (2) and Howie Zeff (2) also had multi-goal performances. Hernandez's multi-goal game was his first of the campaign. William Pezold was credited with three assists and also scored a goal of his own.

UC Merced and CUI traded goals through the first five minutes of the night before the home team went on a 4-0 goal scoring run in a two-minute stretch to create the games first separation at 6-2.  Pezold managed to deposit a shot into the back of the net to stop the run, but CUI then beat the buzzer and carried a 7-3 lead into the second period.

Head coach Johnny Bega's team put together a solid second quarter starting with three unanswered goals to cut into the deficit, one each from Labonte, Hernandez, and Zeff. CUI scored at the 4:31 mark and then Bauer and Labonte added goals to bring the Bobcats even at 8-8 with 90 seconds to go before halftime. However, CUI won those final 90 seconds with two goals and they led 10-8 at intermission.

CUI also scored first out of the break. Bauer answered with his second goal of the contest, but CUI matched every UC Merced goal the rest of the way to maintain at least a two-goal margin. It was a 15-11 Golden Eagles lead heading into the final eight minutes.

Both teams spread out four goals apiece in the fourth quarter resulting in the 19-15 final. CUI had its biggest lead of five goals at 19-14 until Zeff finished the scoring with a goal with 66 seconds left on the board.

Matthew Lloyd made six saves in the cage in the first 16 minutes of action. Ethan Stocker stopped three shots in the second half.

Looking ahead, UC Merced returns to action on Saturday, November 16 at Biola in La Mirada, Calif., for the regular season finale. Opening sprint from Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center is scheduled for 1:00pm.