LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The University of California, Merced men's water polo team split its final two matches of the Gary Troyer Tournament on Saturday, beating Wheaton College 25-5 and falling 10-8 to La Verne.
The Bobcats (4-9) 25 goals against Wheaton marked the second most in program history.
Weston Oliver led the Bobcats with eight goals, tying the freshman program-record and becoming just the second player in program history to score at least eight in a match, joining Camden Peterson.
Match One | UC Merced 25, Wheaton College 5
Oliver scored eight goals, while Evan Ladeairous and Noah Hernandez scored a career-high four goals apiece. Matthew King recorded a hat trick.
Ladeairous scored in the opening minute and the Bobcats offense was clicking on all cylinders the entire match in the wire-to-wire win. Vincent Labonte scored next and the Bobcats outscored Wheaton 6-1 in the first quarter. Five different Bobcats scored overall in the frame, including Jacob Hernandez and Brayden Shively who recorded their first career goals.
The two teams exchanged goals for the majority of the second quarter with Christopher Bettencourt, King, and N. Hernandez getting on the board for the Bobcats. Then, Oliver scored back-to-back to extend the Bobcats lead to 11-4 at intermission.
The Bobcats completely pulled away in the third quarter outscoring Wheaton 9-0. Ladeairous scored the first three goals and then three other Bobcats scored two goals each, including Oliver and Patrick Jones. UC Merced's lead after three quarters was 20-4.
UC Merced continued their dominance in the fourth quarter to finish off the 25-5 win. Oliver scored the final two goals for the Bobcats to reach his career-high eight goals.
Overall, nine Bobcats scored throughout the match for head coach Hannah Ellett.
Other notables include three assists and four steals from Bettencourt and five steals from P. Jones.
Matthew Lloyd, Ethan Stocker, and Jacob Henshaw shared goalkeeping duties.
Match Two | La Verne 10, UC Merced 8
UC Merced went scoreless in the first quarter but the Bobcats defense was stellar and didn't allow La Verne to get on the scoreboard until the final 40 seconds of the period.
La Verne opened the second quarter with a goal before Andrew Jones snapped the Bobcats scoring drought with a goal at the 6:47 mark. Both teams found the back of the net a few more times before halftime as La Verne closed the first half with a 5-3 lead. Aydann Hambruch and Shively were the Bobcats other two first half goal scorers.
Shively tied the game with back-to-back goals in the third quarter which also gave him his first career hat trick. Ladeairous followed with two straight goals of his own and the Bobcats led 7-5 midway through the third quarter.
La Verne bounced back to its first deficit of the match with a 3-0 run and regained the lead at 8-7 early in the final period. A. Jones tied the game with 5:23 left. However, that was the Bobcats final goal. La Verne executed better down the stretch and got the eventual game-winning goal with 2:58 left on the clock. La Verne doubled their lead with an insurance goal at the 2:08 mark to round out their 10-8 victory.
Lloyd recorded five saves for the Bobcats. Markell notched three steals.
Looking ahead, UC Merced will host Fresno Pacific for the WWPA opener on Saturday, October 11 at 1:00pm at the Aquatics Center.
