LEBANON, Ill. – 10 games. Five teams. Two days. 

Those are the numbers set to take place at this year's men's 2025 WWPA Bearcat Clash this Saturday, October 11th, to Sunday, October 12th, inside the McKendree Metro Rec Plex in O'Fallon, Illinois. 

The annual tournament event hosted by McKendree will make an uptick in participating teams this season, increasing from three last year to five this time around. 

The Bearcats, like the other programs, will play in four matches as they face off against Ottawa University Arizona and Salem University on Saturday. This will be followed by Gannon University and Augustana College on Sunday to conclude the tournament. 

Senior Night for McKendree will be in their 3:00 PM CT game against Salem, where they will honor four outgoing seniors in attackers Quinten Gallagher (St. Louis, Mo.) and Kris Eyolfson (Winnipeg, Canada), and utilities Riccardo Vettore (Padua, Italy) and James Ramey (St. Louis, Mo.). 

All contests will be streamed live and on-demand for free on the WWPA Network at https://team1sports.com/wwpa/ as live stats will also be provided via The FOSH at https://www.thefosh.net/. 

Tickets can be purchased at the main doors of the pool at the McKendree Metro Rec Plex on the day of for either a "Day Pass" ($10) or a "Weekend Pass" ($15). McKendree students and children under five years of age get in for free. 

Visit the TOURNAMENT CENTRAL to see all details and specific destinations. TOURNAMENT PROGRAMS are available for print, as they will also be physically available at all the matches. 

SCOUTING THE LAST OUTING 

McKendree went 1-5 in official games, plus one exhibition win last week in their West Coast trip last week. The started on Wednesday, October 1st, with faltering to California State University, Fullerton [8-21] and then the next day on Thursday succumbing to Concordia University Irvine [7-18] before winning a close one to Cuesta College in an exhibition later that day [15-14]. 

Friday marked the first day competing in the annual Gary Troyer Tournament, as the Bearcats started with back-to-back losses to No.7 University of California San Diego [9-21] and to T-No.13 California Baptist University [9-21]. On the final day of the event and the trip, McKendree could not handle the high-powered offense of T-No.19/DIII No.1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges [13-26], but was able to take down another SCIAC opponent in DIII No.5 Whittier College [17-13] to leave with an acceptable mark in California. 

The outcomes resulted in the Bearcats moving to 5-9 on the season overall, with yet to play a conference opponent, until this weekend. 

TROPIC LIKE IT'S HOT 

Although the results were less than one may have hoped for in desires to capture a "golden" opportunity out west, the bonding experience was more than enough to make a team happy. Yet, the opportunity for some Bearcat players to shine under the bright sun of California was also too good to pass up. 

Junior attacker Armand Le Goff (Reims, France) was once again the focal point of McKendree's offense last week as he tallied up 21 points, 13 goals, eight assists, 15 drawn exclusions six steals, three field blocks, two sprint wins, and shot 38.2% at the net. Le Goff now has nine hat-tricks to his name thus far into the season, and has shot 50.0% or better in all but six outings. 

Junior center defender Yannick Robertson also had an impressive run out West, where he came out with 14 points (all of which were goals), 11 exclusions drawn, two steals, a field block, and shot 51.9%. He now has six hat-tricks under his belt this year, as he has drawn two or more exclusions in a game 11 of his 14 matches played. 

Freshman attacker Alexandros Prokopis (Palaio Faliro, Greece) and sophomore utility Joshua Gibson (Nassau, Bahamas) rounded out the Bearcats' well-rounded offensive performance as Prokopis ended the trip with 12 points, nine goals, three assists, four drawn exclusions, seven steals, three field blocks, and a sprint win while shooting 45.0%. Gibson, meanwhile, concluded with 12 points also, along with 10 goals, a pair of assists, a drawn exclusion, a steal, and shot the ball at 43.5%. 

The cage guarding was split again amongst redshirt sophomore Gavin Haight (Jenison, Mich.) and graduate Gennaro Pecoraro (Pesaro, Italy) as the former, in three games, logged 13 saves and seven steals with an 18.3 save percentage in 80 minutes. The latter, in four games, tallied 41 saves and 12 steals on a 39.8 save percentage. Pecoraro also had a last-second goal credited to him in the last game against Whittier. 

TEAM TOPPERS 

LOOKING AHEAD 

After the WWPA Bearcat Clash, McKendree will gets a week's rest before heading in the other direction on the map to Bridgeport, West Virginia, where they will compete in their second conference-sanctioned tournament at the Salem Invitational at The Bridge Sports Complex. 

There, the Bearcats will face Gannon and Mercyhurst University on Saturday, October 25th, and then will take on Salem and Washington & Jefferson College the next day, on Sunday, October 26th. 

All games in the event will be streamed live for free on the WWPA Network, as live stats will also be provided via The FOSH. 

TUNE IN-FO 

Visit the TOURNAMENT CENTRAL to see all details and specific destinations. TOURNAMENT PROGRAMS are available for print, as they will also be physically available at all the matches. 
 

Make sure to keep up with McKendree University Water Polo on  X (Twitter) and Instagram. #NCAAwaterpolo 

For more updates and information on Bearcat Athletics, please continue to visit McKBearcats.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 
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