NORTON, Mass. – The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's water polo team fell to visiting Salem University (W.Va.), 20-12, this evening at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons slip to 1-8 on the season, while the Tigers have won five of their last six and improve to 5-9.
The game was called due to a lightning strike with 5:09 to play in the fourth quarter. Salem outshot Wheaton, 43-28 and doubled up on its host with a 10-5 margin in steals.
Junior utility player Brian Otto (Escondido, Calif.) led the Lyons with four goals and drew a pair of exclusions. Junior attacker Spyros Rapsomanikis (Corfu, Greece) scored twice to go with an assist, four drawn exclusions and a steal. Junior attacker Jack Ruggiero (Hamden, Conn.) also scored a pair of markers, came up with a steal and made a block in the field. Junior utility player Michael Ruemelin (Chicago, Ill.) netted a goal and assisted on two others. Sophomore keeper Nic Boyer (Toledo, Ohio) made 12 saves for Wheaton.
Sophomore utility player Nandor Voros (Edmonton, Alb.) scored five times to lead the Tigers. He added three steals and a field block to his haul, while sophomore utility player Gage Buttice (Longwood, Fla.) added four goals and a pair of steals. Sophomore utility player David Socks (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) contributed with four points, including three assists in addition to two steals and first year utility player Rade Milosevic (Belgrade, Serbia) netted two goals, drew two exclusions and made a steal. Junior goalie Mateja Cerovic (Belgrade, Serbia) stopped three of 12 shots in the opening 16 minutes of play, before yielding to first year netminder Jelle Van Rossum (Amersfoot, Netherlands), who turned away one of four shots in the final 12:51 of action.
Senior center defender Antonio Sablic (Volavar, Croatia) capped a 3-1 string to open the contest for Salem in the first quarter. Ruggiero scored the Lyons' first goal. Wheaton scored three of the next four goals, including a marker from first year attacker Stefan Kecman (Chevy Chase, Md.) that knotted the game at 4-4 with 3:18 showing in the first quarter. Buttice put the Tigers back on top with a goal, but Otto matched him for the Lyons. Ruggiero came up with a steal at mid pool and took the ball into Salem's defensive zone, before firing a shot to give the home team a 6-5 edge with 1:42 left in the period. First year utility player Patrik Petlyanszki (Budapest, Hungary) found the back of the net for the Tigers with 57 seconds remaining in the quarter to even the tally a 6-6 after one quarter.
Voros continued the momentum with a pair of goals to open the second period for Salem and give it an 8-6 margin with 4:55 to play in the period. Rapsomanikis and Otto sandwiched individual scores around a Voros goal to keep Wheaton within one at 9-8 with 1:40 to go in the first half. Junior center Timothy Fischer (Chicago, Ill.) and Otto traded goals to keep it a one-goal difference at the intermission.
Salem held onto a slim 10-9 lead at halftime, but tallied the first five goals of the third quarter, en-route to a 6-2 period to give the visitors a 16-11 lead. Sophomore center Medun Arsovic (Belgrade, Serbia) led the charge to open the second half with a pair of goals. First year center defender Ethan Vince (Dexter, Mich.) ended the Tigers' opening blitz with the Lyons' first tally of the second half with 90 seconds to go in the third quarter. Ruemelin followed 62 ticks later to cut the deficit to 15-11 for Wheaton, before sophomore utility player Connor McAlister (Denton, Texas) scored Salem's 16th goal to give it a five-goal margin after three quarters of play.
Wheaton was held to just one marker in the fourth quarter from Otto, while Buttice fueled a 4-1 run in the final period for the Tigers. Socks netted the final goal of the night, before the game was called, per agreement of both coaches following the lightning strike.
The Lyons return to the pool on Saturday, October 24 when they head to Baltimore, Md. to play Pennsylvania State University Behrend at host Johns Hopkins University at 12:00 p.m., while the Tigers play again tomorrow when they travel to Providence, R.I. to take on Long Island University at 10:00 a.m. and host Brown University at 2:30 p.m.
