ERIE, Pa. – The men's water polo team concluded their time and regular season at the WWPA Erie Classic with a nail-biting loss to the host Gannon University to put a stamp on their WWPA tournament seeding at the Hagerty Family Events Center on Sunday, November 8th in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Score: McKendree University 13, Gannon University 14
Record: Bearcats 10-15, 1-3 WWPA | Golden Knights 11-10, 2-2 WWPA
HOW IT HAPPENED
Attacker Alexandros Prokopis (Palaio Faliro, Greece) gave the Bearcats their first two goals of the game, whereas the Golden Knights nailed a pair into the back of the net between the sophomore's output. Junior utility Joshua Gibson (Nassau, Bahamas) followed up with a straight-on shot to retake the lead, while senior attacker Armand Le Goff (Reims, France) came into the second period and made do on a one-on-one breakaway opportunity coming off a missed Gannon shot 45 ticks in.
Gannon was able to muster up a 5-2 team run to obtain a 7-6 lead heading into halftime, with Le Goff and senior center Yannick Robertson (St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago) in on McKendree's two goals.
After the Golden Knights sunk another shot to begin the third quarter, Le Goff took it upon himself to knot the match up with two consecutive scoring possessions. The two sides would then trade goals, keeping the game tight knit.
With 1:45 left on the clock and coming down to the wire, Gibson would strike again from several yards out, and making the score even at 13-all. After a few saves and takeaways in the subsequent possessions, Gannon would have the ball on a final attempt which saw Rajmund Farsang dent the twine with one second remaining on the game clock. Gibson then took a last-second heave bock was blocked by the field, giving the Golden Knights the 14-13 conference win.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
• Le Goff made five shots on 11 attempts (45.5%) to go with two assists, and four steals.
• Gibson also earned a hat-trick of three goals on seven attempts (42.9%).
• Prokopis and Robertson each contributed two goals with the former stealing the ball twice and the latter drawing three exclusions.
• Graduate goalkeeper Gennaro Pecoraro (Pesaro, Italy) played the whole game in the cage and tallied 14 saves and a pair of steals.
• McKendree shot 13-for-39 (33.3%) and went 2-2 on sprints.
• The Bearcats assisted on six of their 13 goals (46.2%).
UP NEXT
McKendree has now solidified themselves as the three-seed in the East region of the upcoming WWPA Championships, which will take place at the Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center in La Mirada, California from November 20th to 22nd.
The Bearcats will first face the tournament host, (2W) Biola University, on Friday in quarterfinal action. A win will move them on to the Semifinals, as a loss will result a two-game round robin to determine the 5th through 7th-place finishers on Saturday, with the championship and the second day of the round robin coming on Sunday.
All games will be streamed live and on demand for free on the WWPA Network, with live stats also available via The FOSH. Further tournament information can be found at mckbearcts.com.
Make sure to keep up with McKendree University Water Polo on X (Twitter) and Instagram. #NCAAwaterpolo
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