NORTON, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's water polo team was defeated by visiting Connecticut College, 27-9, this evening in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons slip to 1-13 overall and 1-3 in MPSF play, while the Camels improve to 3-10 and 2-2.
Prior to the match, Wheaton honored its honored its only Aziz Abdulaziz (Istanbul, Turkey) on Senior night.
Sophomore utility player Spyros Rapsomanikis (Kerkyra, Greece) led the Blue and White with a trio of goals and two steals and first year attacker Ayden Guess (Alvin, Texas) tallied two goals. Sophomore Jack Ruggiero (Hamden, Conn.) and Michael Ruemelin (Chicago, Ill.) both contributed with a goal and an assist. First year goalie Nic Boyer (Toledo, Ohio) stopped 11 shots and registered a steal for the Lyons.
Junior attacker Jeffrey Harrington (San Diego, Calif.) tallied a game-high nine points, including seven goals to lead Connecticut College. He also added a steal for Connecticut College, while junior two-meter Ethan Hipsky (Glastonbury, Conn.) netted four goals. Senior goalie Sebastian Parilov (Brooklyn, N.Y.) tallied three goals and assisted on two others to go with four steals and stopped three of eight shots in 16 minutes in goal for the Camels. First year utility player Topher Cook (West Palm Beach, Fla.) scored three times to go with an assist and sophomore goalie Artem Kyselov (Dnipro, Ukraine) stopped 10 of 13 shots in only 13:49 between the pipes.
Connecticut College took a 6-3 lead after the first quarter, led by four goals from Harrington. Rapsomanikis, Ruggiero and first year attacker Charles Jacoby (Reading, Pa.) all scored for Wheaton in the opening quarter.
The Camels saw six different players find the back of the net to double their goal tally and give them a 12-3 advantage with 3:50 left in the second quarter. Ruemelin broke up the scoring string for the Lyons, before first year two-meter Zach Dixon (Wayne, Pa.) answered for Connecticut College to close out the second quarter and give the visitors a 13-4 cushion.
The Camels effectively put the game away after scoring seven of the first eight goals to open the third quarter, including two markers from Parilov, to take a comfortable 20-5 lead midway through the quarter. Wheaton scored the next three markers, including the final goal of the third and the first two of the fourth quarter to cut the gap to 20-8 with 5:30 remaining in the contest. Rapsomankis scored twice during the burst.
Connecticut College ripped off seven straight tallies, including three scores from Hipsky, over the next five-plus minutes to expand the Camels' advantage to 27-8. Boyer netted the final goal at the buzzer for the Lyons to make it 27-9.
Wheaton retursn to the pool tomorrow morning at Balfour Natatorium when it hosts No. 3 Johns Hopkins University at 10:30 a.m., while Conn. College returns Norton tomorrow when it takes on MPSF foe Austin College at 9:00 a.m.
