GENEVA, Ohio - The two-seed in the East Region McKendree men's water polo came up short in hopes to capture their first-ever WWPA Championship title, as they fell to the three-seed in the West Region in Fresno Pacific University in quarterfinal action on Friday, November 21st at the SPIRE Aquatics Center in Geneva, Ohio. 

Score: McKendree University 13, Fresno Pacific University 17 

Record: Bearcats 11-12, 2-2 WWPA | Sunbirds 5-18, 2-4 WWPA 

HOW IT HAPPENED 

The recent All-WWPA First and Second Team honorees, respectively, in attacker Armand Le Goff (Reims, France) and center defender Yannick Robertson (St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago) got the Bearcats going with the game's first two goals with ease. Fresno Pacific got their first scoring possession of the game a minute and 40 seconds in via a power play opportunity. On the very next possession by McKendree, sophomore utility Joshua Gibson (Nassau, Bahamas) was able to convert on his end on five-meter penalty shot to take a two-point edge. 

Another made penalty shot by Gibson kept the momentum flowing for McKendree as the first period of play closed out with a bang from fellow utility player Riccardo Vettore (Padua, Italy), who took a longshot straight on with 25 ticks left to expand the lead to 5-3. 

The upperclassmen takeover bled its way into the second quarter with attacker Quinten Gallagher (St. Louis, Mo.) firing one inside posts to up his squad's lead to three. For a third-straight sequence, FPU's Forrest Gray and Luke Young contributed another 2-0 spurt for their team to help keep the game within their reach. Le Goff would respond by slinging in a wild skipshot from the far right corner that somehow made its way into the back of the net to hold the Bearcats with the 8-7 lead heading into halftime. 

The script would flip at the start of half number two with four unanswered goals by the Sunbirds, turning it into a 6-1 run dating back to their performance in the second quarter, while they started to pull away from McKendree. Attackers in freshman Alexandros Prokopis (Palaio Faliro, Greece) and junior Rowan Daughtrey (Commerce City, Colo.) earned their first goals of the contest late in the period while they found themselves down by only three with a chance to make a comeback. 

The final quarter of regulation would come in the hands of the two Bearcats who started this game in the right direction with Le Goff and Robertson as McKendree would fight tooth and nail to find a way to score, but FPU was there for every succession by the team in purple and gold with a response of their own. The Sunbirds would hold on down the stretch and disallow McKendree to move on as they would with the quarterfinal match, 17-13. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS 

• Le Goff led the way for the Bearcats with four goals on 11 shot attempts (36.4%) along with two assists, a steal, and two blocks. 

• Gallagher, Gibson, and Robertson each registered a pair of scoring possessions in the setback. 

• Vettore, Prokopis, and Daughtrey rounded out the McKendree scoring with one goal to each, with four steals and two field blocks combined across the trio. 

• Graduate goalkeeper Gennaro Pecoraro (Pesaro, Italy) was in the cage for half the match, registering six saves and a takeaway while redshirt sophomore cage guardian Gavin Haight (Jenison, Mich.) came away with three saves, plus two steals and an assist in 15:48 of play. 

• McKendree outshot FPU 37-28. 

• The bearcats won the steals battle, 13-8. 

UP NEXT 

With the setback, McKendree will wind up facing the University of California, Merced in an exhibition bout tomorrow on Saturday, November 22nd at 9:00 AM CT at the SPIRE Aquatics Center in Geneva, Ohio. The Bearcats will then take on Salem University for a third time this season on Sunday in the tournament's fifth-place matchup at 8:00 AM CT. 

The matches will remain free for viewers to watch on the WWPA Network with The FOSH made available for in-game live stats. Tickets are still available for purchase for those who wish to attend in person. 

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

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