FULLERTON, Calif. – The Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) has announced their weekly honors on Wednesday, October 28th, with McKendree graduate goalkeeper Gennaro Pecoraro (Pesaro, Italy) earning the league's Defensive Player of the Week honors. 

It is the first weekly award for the graduate student out of Italy. He is the second Bearcat to earn Defensive Player of the Week this season, as it is the third overall in the current campaign for both offense and defense. 

The cage guardian made an impressive performance to begin conference play at the WWPA West Virginia Showdown this past weekend, where he had a 1-1 goalkeeping record with a combined 32 saves, three steals, and two assists on a 52.5 save percentage across his two games started. He had 15 saves and an assist in an 18-17 win, holding off a late push by Gannon University. Then, he had 17 saves, all three steals, and another dished assist in a late-game falter to the host Salem University. Pecoraro also played 30 against Mercyhurst University, but did not record any statistics. 

Pecoraro currently leads the team this season in saves (172), save percentage (45.0%), and steals (29). He is top-10 in the WWPA in steals (7th – 29), saves (2nd – 172), save percentage (T-1st – 45.0%), goals-against average (5th – 15.9), saves per game (1st – 11.5), and steals per game (3rd – 1.9). 

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