LEBANON, Ill. – The men's water polo team will look to make waves in Pennsylvania this weekend, as they will take part in the annual Erie Invitational Classic from Saturday, September 27th, to Sunday, September 28th. The event will be co-hosted by Penn State Behrend and fellow WWPA member Gannon University.
On Saturday, the Bearcats will swim things off against Behrend at 8:00 AM CT, then face off against Washington & Jefferson College for the first time in two years at 1:00 PM CT. On the next day, McKendree will take on an old WWPA foe in Mercyhurst University bright and early with a 7:00 AM start time. All matches will take place inside the Hagerty Family Events Center in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Only the match against Behrend will be streamed live, which can be viewed on their BoxCast platform at https://boxcast.tv/view/behrend-mens-water-polo. Live stats will not be provided for any of the three contests that McKendree will compete in, albeit a box score for each game will be publicized later in the day on the Bearcats' website schedule.
View the "TUNE IN-FO" to see all details and specific destinations.
SCOUTING THE LAST OUTING
McKendree dropped their last outing, 12-14, in an in-state clash with Augustana College up in Rock Island. The setback puts the Bearcats at 1-4 in the early stages of the season with yet to play a conference opponent.
A PRICE YOU CAN'T ÅFJORD
It takes guts (non-literally) to battle the Vikings in their home waters, and that seemed to be the situation last Saturday afternoon when the Bearcats had to face not only those swimming in their path, but also handle the echoing sounds of the Augie faithful in the stands, with supporters from McKendree getting loud and proud for the purple and gold.
It was a tight matchup within the first four minutes of action until Augustana started to make their home presence felt with a few quick goals to end the first quarter and to begin the second. Yet, the Bearcats would claw their way back gradually in the second half of play and eventually erase a four-point deficit and tie it at 11 with four minutes remaining in regulation.
The game would remain even from there as the clock kept ticking away, but the Vikings capitalized vigorously at their end of the pool and stuck in the dagger with two clinching goals to outlast the Bearcats 14-12
Both freshman attacker Alexandros Prokopis (Palaio Faliro, Greece) and junior attacker Armand Le Goff (Reims, France) earned a hat-trick with three goals each. Prokopis also came away with three drawn exclusions and a trio of steals on the defensive end. He has now scored at least a pair of goals in four of his five games this season, with at least two points in all of his games played.
Le Goff was a bright spot in the prior event at the Rare Air Invitational a few weekends ago and has yet to slow down. The junior now has three hat-trick outings with scoring at minimum of one goal in each contest played.
Goalkeepers Gavin Haight (Junior; Jenison, Mich.) and Gennaro Pecoraro (Graduate; Pesaro, Italy) remain to split evenly with net duties with 80 total minutes each. Haight collected seven in the game against the Vikings and is at 36 overall (49.3%) for the season along with four steals. Pecoraro finished the match with four saves and had the same amount of takeaways as well, as he now has 24 swats and 11 steals on the year.
Although not ending the game as leading scorers, junior center defender Yannick Robertson (St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago) and Senior utility James Ramey (St. Louis, Mo.) each continued their offensive reliability within the squad by chipping in two goals each.
TEAM TOPPERS
• SHOTS – Armand Le Goff (36)
• GOALS – Yannick Robertson (16)
• ASSISTS – Alexandros Prokopis (7)
• SHOOTING % – Quinten Gallagher (80.0%)
• DRAWN EXCLUSIONS – Yannick Robertson (13)
• STEALS – Gennaro Pecoraro (11)
• FIELD BLOCKS – Armand Le Goff (5)
• SPRINTS WON – Tie;
Armand Le Goff,
James Ramey (2)
• SPRINT WIN % – James Ramey (50.0%)
• SAVES – Gavin Haight (36)
• SAVE % – Gavin Haight (49.3%)
LOOKING AHEAD
After the Erie Invitational Classic, McKendree will make a quick turnaround and head to California from October 1st to October 4th for the prestigious Gary Troyer Tournament, along with a few tune-up matches in the days leading up to the event.
They will match up against seven different programs, including Cal State Fullerton, (RV) Concordia University Irvine, Cuesta College [Exhibition], No.7 UC San Diego, No.14 Cal Baptist, No.20/DIII No.1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and DIII No.10 Whittier.
TUNE IN-FO
| DATE |
TIME (CT) |
HOME (DARK) TEAM |
AWAY (WHITE) TEAM |
LIVE STATS |
WATCH LIVE |
| 9/27/25 |
8:00 AM |
Penn State Behrend |
McKendree |
NO STATS |
WATCH |
| 9/27/25 |
1:00 PM |
Washington & Jefferson |
McKendree |
NO STATS |
NO STREAM |
| 9/28/25 |
7:00 AM |
Mercyhurst |
McKendree |
NO STATS |
NO STREAM |
Make sure to keep up with McKendree University Water Polo on X (Twitter) and Instagram. #NCAAwaterpolo
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