MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The McKendree University men's water polo team moved one game closer to repeating as the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference-West Region champion here Saturday evening as the Bearcats picked up a 23-12 win over fifth-seeded Mercyhurst University in the 2021 MAWPC-West Region Tournament held at Mylan Aquatic Park.
 
With the win, McKendree (10-8) advances to Sunday's title game against No. 2 seeded Gannon (Pa.) University at 10:30 a.m. ET. The winner of the MAWPC-West Region championship earns a berth to the eight-team MAWP Championship, which is scheduled for Nov. 19-21 at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The winner of the MAWPC Championship earns a spot in the 2021 NCAA Men's Water Polo Championship, which is set to be hosted by the UCLA on Dec. 2-5 in Los Angeles, Calif.
 
In Saturday's win against Mercyhurst, who earned opened tournament play earlier in the day on Saturday with a 12-10 win over fourth-seeded Washington & Jefferson, the Bearcats outshot the Lakers, 40-33 and got two or more goals from seven different players.
 
Leading the way offensively for the Bearcats was senior utility player Matthew Haygood (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills), who tallied five goals. In addition to Haygood, sophomore center Adam Serrano (Riverside, Calif./Poly), graduate student Uros Pelemis (Belgrade, Serbia/Fresno Pacific), fifth-year senior Pedro Osorio (San Bernardino, Calif./Riverside City College) and graduate student Michael Rojas (Cali, Colombia/Salem University) each tallied three goals in the win.
 
The other multiple goal scorers on Saturday were freshman attacker Jespyn Bishop (Brighton, Colo./Brighton) and senior attacker Tony Sunagawa (Chino Hills, Calif./Chino Hills) each scored two goals.
 
After the two teams traded goals in the opening two minutes, the Bearcats used a 5-1 flurry to take a 6-2 lead with 1:15 left in the opening period. After a goal by Mercyhurst's Michael Gutman stopped McKendree's run, Haygood and Bishop scored goals in the final 26 seconds of the first period to give McKendree an 8-3 lead.
 
McKendree scored three of the five goals in the second period to take an 11-5 lead at the half.
 
The Bearcats would add six more goals in the third period to push its lead to 17-8 heading into the fourth period. The goals in the period were scored by Sunagawa, Osorio, Rojas, Pelemis and Haygood, who ended the period by scoring back-to-back goals.
 
Pelemis and Haygood got the scoring started in the fourth period with back-to-back goals to push its lead to 19-8. Derek Kagen scored two consecutive goals for Mercyhurst to drop McK's lead to 19-10, the Bearcats would close the game by scoring four of the final six goals, including Serrano tallying the final goal with 1:09 remaining.
 
Fifth-year senior Ori Scanlon (Orlando, Fla./Olympia) played all 32 minutes in goal and recorded 15 saves and allowed 12 goals and recorded a .556 save percentage.
 
Mercyhurst (2-19), who will face No. 3 seeded Salem in Sunday's third place game at 9 a.m. ET, was paced by four goals each by Kagen and Gutman, while Mathieu Davis added two goals in the loss.
 
Tony Golin played 24 minutes in goal for the Lakers and allowed 12 goals and five saves, while Nash Greeven added five saves and allowed 11 goals in the loss.
 
Here are the first day results from the 2021 MAWPC-West Region Championships.
 
Saturday, Nov. 6
Game 1 – No. 5 seed Mercyhurst 12, No. 4 seed Washington & Jefferson 10
Game 2 – No. 2 seed Gannon (Pa.) 18, No. seed Salem University 11
Game 3 – No. 1  seed McKendree 23, No. 5 seed Mercyhurst 12
Game 4 – No. 3 seed Salem 18, No. 4 seed Washington & Jefferson 16
Sunday, Nov. 7
Third Place Game – 9 a.m. ET – Salem vs. Mercyhurst
First Place Game – 10:30 a.m. ET – McKendree vs. Gannon (Pa.)