NORTON, Mass. -- The Wheaton College (Mass.), men's water polo team was defeated by visiting Connecticut College, 23-13, this evening at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.

The Lyons fall to 0-11 in their inaugural full season, while the Camels improve to 6-11.

Wheaton honored its lone senior Hugh Gregg (Portsmouth, N.H.) in a ceremony prior to the match.

The home team held a 41-36 shot advantage, but Connecticut College connected on 63.8% of its shots. 

First year utility player Spyros Rapsomanikis (Kerkyra, Greece) racked up a school-record eight points on six goals and two assists in addition to five steals and six drawn exclusions for the Lyons, while classmate Michael Ruemelin (Chicago, Ill.) netted three goals to go with an assist and a steal. First year 2-meter defender Jack Ruggiero (Hamden, Conn.) contributed with three goals and four steals. First year goalie Dylan Boccali (Ventura, Calif.) recorded six saves for Wheaton. 

Sophomore 2-meter Cormac Stevens (Philadelphia, Pa.) netted six goals and added an assist to lead the Camels. Sophomore 2-meter Ethan Hipsky (Glastonbury, Conn.) scored five times, while first year attacker Thomas McDonough (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) and sophomore attacker Jesse Ellis (Fresno, Calif.) each collected four points with three goals and an assist each. First year attacker Augie Loredo (Houston, Texas) came up with three steals in addition to scoring a goal and adding a pair of assists. Junior goalie Sebastian Parilov (Brooklyn, N.Y.) stopped four of seven shots in the opening quarter for Connecticut College and first year keeper Artem Kyselov (Dnipro, Ukraine) turned away five of seven shots in the second quarter. Junior netminder Isaac Merwin (Houston, Texas) denied six of 14 tries in the final two quarters of play.

The Camels scored the first four goals of the evening, including two each from Stevens and Ellis with 5:46 to play in the opening quarter. Ruggiero and Rapsomanikis netted back-to-back goals in a span of 31 seconds to cut the deficit in half for the Lyons at 4-2 with 4:24 showing on the clock. Conn. College closed out the half by scoring four of the last five markers to take a 9-3 advantage. 

The Camels carried their momentum into the second period, scoring four goals, including two from Hipsky, to increase their advantage to 13-3. The teams traded two goals apiece to end the half, including the final marker of the quarter from Stevens with 23 ticks left to give the visitors a 15-5 cushion at the intermission.

Hipsky scored just 21 seconds into the third quarter to give Connecticut College a 16-5 lead for its largest margin for the game. Wheaton came alive for three unanswered goals, including a pair of power-play markers from Rapsomanikis, to pull the Lyons to within 16-8 with 3:43 to go in the period. The teams traded three goals apiece to end the period with Ruggiero finding the back of the net with 15 seconds left in the quarter to cut the margin to 19-11 for Wheaton, which outscored its guests, 6-4 in the period. 

Rapsomanikis scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter to bring the Lyons within 19-13 with 3:32 remaining in the game. The Camels responded by scoring four unanswered goals to close out the match and secure the victory. 

Wheaton returns to the water when it heads to Sherman, Texas to play Pennsylvania State University Behrend on November 9 at 12:30 p.m., while Connecticut College heads to New Rochelle, N.Y. on October 30 to play Iona College at 6:00 p.m.