Back-and-Forth Battle Ends in Defeat

Kingsmen go winless in SCIAC homestand

Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008 3:55 pm

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The California Lutheran University men's water polo team fell to Pomona-Pitzer Colleges, 6-7 at home on Saturday morning. Sagehens Jason Henshall scored the game-winner with 61 seconds left in regulation to give the Kingsmen back-to-back one-goal conference losses.

The No. 3 Sagehens and No. 4 Kingsmen battled as close as the Division III national polls would incline as neither team led by more than one goal over all 32 minutes.

CLU's Mikey Blanchard and Matt Heagy provided the first three leads of the game at 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 with Pomona-Pitzer responding in kind with two scores from Ben Hadley and a third from Ryan Balikian.

Both teams combined for six goals in the opening quarter but would total seven over the final three periods.

The Sagehens took their first lead of the game after Balikian put away his second goal of the game with 6:27 left in the second quarter.

Facing its first deficit of the game, Wes Lewis tied it up 4-4 with 1:44 left and it remained that way into halftime.

A pair of Jeff Chaney goals provided a 5-4 third quarter lead and a 6-5 advantage that stood through the start of the final quarter.

The Kingsmen offense stalled not scoring over the final 10 minutes of play while Andrew Ayers tied the game with 6:26 left and Henshall the game-winner.

Six ties and three lead changes later the Sagehens prevailed.

CLU goalkeeper Jordan Bouey made nine saves in the loss.

The CLU offense has faced stiff defense in SCIAC play going 3-for-17 on power play chances and 0-for-2 on penalty shots through three matches.

Cal Lutheran (8-12, 0-3 SCIAC) will travel to face the University of La Verne (3-15, 1-2 SCIAC) on Wednesday, October 28 at 4 p.m.