NEW LONDON, Conn. -- The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's water polo team closed out its regular season with a 23-13 loss at host Connecticut College this evening at Lott Natatorium in New London, Conn.

The Lyons fall to 0-16, while the Camels improve to 7-11.

First year 2-meter Michael Ruemelin (Chicago, Ill.) led all scorers with a game-high five goals for Wheaton, while classmate Jared Safren (Miami, Fla.) scored four times. First year utility player Spyros Rapsomanikis (Kerkyra, Greece) netted a pair of goals and first years Jack Ruggiero (Hamden, Conn.) and Josh Vander Wagen (Brookfield, Ill.) each tallied a marker. First year goalie Dylan Boccali (Ventura, Calif.) stopped 16 shots.

Senior attacker Siaki Nelson (Montgomery, Texas) led Connecticut College with four goals, while sophomore attacker Jeffrey Harrington (San Diego, Calif.) and sophomore attacker Jesse Ellis (Fresno, Calif.) each tallied three goals. Junior goalie Sebastian Parilov (Brooklyn, N.Y.) turned away 10 of 15 shots in the first half, before yielding to Artem Kyselov (Dnipro, Ukraine), who stopped three of 11 attempts in the second stanza.

Safren opened the scoring with the first goal of the game to give the Lyons a 1-0 edge with 5:23 to play in the first quarter. The Camels scored the next two goals, including a marker from junior utility player Carson Neidert (West Palm Beach, Fla.), to take a 2-1 lead with 3:17 showing on the first quarter clock. Wheaton ripped off the next three scores, including back-to-back goals from Ruemelin, to give the Lyons a 4-2 margin at the 6:23 mark of the second quarter. 

Conn. College effectively put the game out of reach with 16 of the next 17 goals, including seven straight to spark the offensive eruption. Ellis scored three times and Harrington added two goals during the opening of the run, before Ruemelin scored for Wheaton to make it 9-5 at 1:30 of the second quarter. The next nine markers came from the Camels, paced by three goals from Nelson, to take a commanding 18-5 cushion with 2:49 left to play in the third quarter. 

Ruemelin scored two straight markers to pull the Lyons within 18-7 before the start of the fourth quarter. Connecticut College strung three consecutive goals together, including two from first year attacker Thomas McDonough (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), to increase the Camels' advantage to 21-7. Wheaton closed out the game by scoring six of the final eight goals, led by a pair of markers from Rapsomanikis and Safren to cut the final deficit to 23-13.

The Lyons return to action on Friday, November 22 when they take on number eight seed Washington & Jefferson College in Los Angeles, Calif. at 11:30 a.m. EST in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship Tournament hosted by University of California Los Angeles. Connecticut College returns to the pool on the same day when it travels to Princeton, N.J. to play Princeton University in the opening round of the Northeast Water Polo Conference Championship Tournament.