ERIE, Pa. – The McKendree University men's water polo team concluded play here Sunday in the CWPA Division II Championship by finishing in third place following a 20-6 win in the third place game over Mercyhurst University at Cathedral Prep's Hallman Aquatics Center.
 
McKendree, who entered as the tournament's No. 1 seed, fell into the third place game after going 0-2 in Saturday's first day of action as they opened with a 10-8 loss to No. 2 seed Gannon University and then fell 12-10 to No. 3 seed Salem University.
 
With the 1-2 record, McKendree improves its record to 9-8 on the season.
 
Gannon University won its fourth straight CWPA Division II Championship following its 14-9 win in Sunday's title game over Salem University.
 
Along with finishing in third place, the Bearcats had one player named to the All-Tournament Team as graduate utility player Michael Rojas (Cali, Colombia/Salem University) named to the seven player All-Tournament Team.
 
Gannon's Robert Bolmanski was named the Tournament MVP, while Gannon's Shane Unger was named the Coach of the Tournament and Salem's Nikola Krstonosic was named the Rookie of the Tournament.
 
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Nikola Krstonosic - Salem
Ivan Zivojinovic - Salem
Michael Rojas - McKendree
Tony Squeglia - Gannon
Drago Marjanovic - Gannon
Robert Bolmanski - Gannon
Tony Golin - Mercyhurst
 
In Sunday's third place game against Mercyhurst, the Bearcats scored at least five goals in three of the four periods, including tallying six goals in the third period to post the win and claim third place.
 
Against Mercyhurst, senior attacker Josh Carlson (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln Way West) and senior attacker Tony Sunagawa (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills) each scored four goals, while senior utility player Matthew Haygood (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills) added three goals and sophomore center Adam Serrano (Riverside, Calif./Poly) added two goals.
 
Rojas finished with a goal and two assists, while Haygood had three assists for a total of six points.
 
Haygood opened the game by scoring the first two goals and after the Lakers scored two goals to pull within 3-2 with 3:11 left in the first period, the Bearcats used goals by Carlson and senior center Tristen Clue (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills) to end the first period with a 5-2 lead.
 
The Bearcats would score four more goals in the second period to hold a 9-4 lead at the half.
 
McKendree would put the game out of reach in the third period by outscoring the Lakers, 6-1 to push its lead to 15-5. The six goals were scored by six different players.
 
In the fourth period, McKendree scored five goals, including Serrano and Carlson scoring the final three goals.
 
Sophomore goalkeeper Jimmy Cronin (Naperville, Ill./Metea Valley) played all 32 minutes in goal and made 13 saves, while allowing six goals.
 
Mathieu Davis and Derek Kagen each scored two goals for the Lakers, who fell to 1-18 on the season.
 
Complete information and statistics were not available from the Salem University game.
 
Meanwhile, in McKendree's first game of the event on Saturday against Gannon, the Bearcats were outscored 11-5 in the first half, including 8-2 in the second period.
 
Against Gannon, fifth-year senior defender Pedro Osorio (San Bernardino, Calif./Riverside City College) led the way with three goals and added an assists for four points, while Rojas, Haygood and senior attacker Nico Rodriguez (Bogota, Colombia/Oviedo) each had two goals in the loss. Rojas, though, tallied five assists for seven points in the game.
 
Osorio got the scoring started with a goal just 94 seconds into the game and Haygood gave the Bearcats a 2-1 lead with 4:14 left in the period. Gannon would then score two straight goals to take a 3-2 lead, before Rodriguez made the score 3-3 with one second left in the period.
 
Gannon would open the second period with six straight goals to push its lead to 9-3. Rojas and Carlson would score goals within 29 seconds of each other late in the period to cut Gannon's lead to 9-5. The Golden Knights closed the period with two goals in the final 57 seconds to hold its 11-5 lead at the half.
 
Osorio scored the first two goals of the third period to cut Gannon's lead to 11-7 and after Anthony Squeglia gave the Golden Knights a 12-7 lead, Rodriguez added a goal right at the buzzer to push within 12-8 heading into the final period.
 
Serrano pushed McKendree within 12-9 on his goal nearly four minutes into the fourth period. Bolmanski, who scored five goals and added two assists in the win, gave Gannon a 13-9 lead with 2:33 left in the game. Haygood and Rojas would close the scoring with goals at 1:18 and 56 seconds.
 
In addition to Bolmanski, Squeglia and Drago Marjanovic each had two goals and Marjanovic added three assists for a total of five points.
 
Cronin and fifth-year senior Ori Scanlon (Orlando, Fla./Olympia) each played 14 minutes in goal for the Bearcats as Cronin allowed two goals and made eight saves, while Scanlon allowed 11 goals and made two saves.
 
The Bearcats will next be in action on Nov. 6-7 as they compete in the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference West Division Tournament at Mylan Park in Morgantown, W.Va. McKendree is the No. 1 seeded team in the tournament and will face the winner of the Washington & Jefferson/Mercyhurst game at 6 p.m. ET on Nov. 6.