LEBANON, Ill. - The men's water polo team is set to host the annual Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) Bearcat Clash on Saturday, November 9th at the McKendree Metro Rec Plex with Gannon University and Salem University joining in the event.
This will be the first installment of the clash formed by the conference. The WWPA usually allows a couple of its members within each division to host a multi-team event, consisting of three or four teams. In between the Bearcats' two contests, Salem and Gannon will face each other to make it a round-robin format with each team playing twice.
BEARCATS CURRENTLY
McKendree is coming off a bye-week after putting together their most successful weekend yet this season at the WWPA Erie Classic in late October. They started out with two losses against the upcoming visiting Golden Knights and Tigers, but they finished by winning the last two matches against Penn State Behrend and Mercyhurst University, giving the Bearcats their first two official victories of the year.
Sophomore Yannick Robertson (Trinidad and Tobago) is McKendree's leading scorer, notching in a hair under three goals a game, giving him a total of 45 along with 10 assists, 17 steals, and 23 drawn exclusions. Junior James Ramey (St. Louis, Mo.) is not too far behind as he is tied for ninth in the conference in points a contest with 2.4 and 39 total goals while being second in steals-per-game at 1.8. The Bearcats also have two top-five field blockers in the league with junior Riccardo Vettore (Padova, Italy) and freshman Joshua Gibson (Nassau, Bahamas) collecting 12 and 10 respectively. Fifth-year Jimmy Cronin (Naperville, Ill.) will more than likely be in the net as he is fourth in the WWPA in saves total at 163 and save percentage at 37.9%. He also leads the conference in saves-per-game at a slight advantage with 10.2.
McKendree currently sits at 2-14 overall and 0-2 in the WWPA, plus obtaining an exhibition win back in late September. Cronin earned his second WWPA Defensive Player of the Year award of the season last Wednesday subsequently after his showing in the Erie Classic.
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Salem University | Saturday, November 9th, 9:00 AM CT
Last Matchup: L, 14-25 on 10/26/2024 | RECAP | BOX SCORE
Salem is one of the hotter teams in all of collegiate water polo, as they went full throttle in the Erie Classic, winning all four games as a program that was receiving votes in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Men's Varsity Top 20. Their current win streak is at nine with their last loss coming in late September to Fordham University at the Bucknell Invitational. Overall, their record is 16-3 while going 2-0 in league play thus far.
The Tigers hold the top three scorers in all the WWPA in senior Nikola Krstonosic, junior Marko Zivojinovic, and freshman Danko Kesic, who each put in 5.2, 4.4, and 3.5 goals a match respectively. Salem also shows a great presence on the defensive end with Zivojinovic and Krstonosic each contributing just under two steals-per-game and sophomore Antonio Sablic leading the league in total field blocks with 14. They have two goalkeepers sharing the spotlight with senior Duarte Costa and senior Goncalo Silva as the former has 92 total saves while the latter has 91.
Gannon University | Saturday, November 9th, 5:00 PM CT
Last Matchup: L, 12-17 on 10/25/2024 | RECAP | BOX SCORE
Like Salem, Gannon has found an upward trajectory late into their season by winning nine of their last 10 games including going 3-1 in their recent hosting of the WWPA Erie Classic and 2-0 in the Penn State Behrend Invitational.
Sophomore Petar Markovic is their leading scorer, netting 3.1 goals per game and totaling up to 56 so far in the season. Fellow teammate, junior Alexandros Kotskar is not too far behind with 2.5 goals a contest. Defensively, freshmen Nikiforos Liantziris and Michael McGarry are both in the top five in the league in steals-per-game, with the former grabbing 1.5 and the latter stealing 1.4. Senior Alvaro Marco is expected to be in the goal for the Golden Knights as he ranks in the top five in the WWPA in saves-per-game and total saves while leading first in save percentage at 50.6%
TUNE IN-FO
TEAM ROSTERS: [McKendree] [Salem] [Gannon]
TEAM SCHEDULES: [McKendree] [Salem] [Gannon]
TEAM STATISTICS: [McKendree] [Salem] [Gannon]
McKendree University vs Salem University
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Salem University vs Gannon University
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McKendree University vs Gannon University
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