Karina Rodriguez
Sports Editor
The men’s water polo team lost against Occidental, 14-11, Saturday at the La Verne Aquatic Center.
Head coach Robert Echeverria said he believed the Leopards did a great job at attacking the Tigers, despite the score.
“I think movement on the half core offense really helped generate other opportunities for us,” Echeverria said.
La Verne made mistakes during the final quarter which Echeverria believes harmed the Leopards.
“I think we played well for three quarters and then after that we kind of ran out of gas,” Echeverria said.“We made some crucial mistakes that Oxy did a really good job on capitalizing.”
During the first quarter, La Verne scored three goals and Occidental scored four.
One of La Verne’s goals was scored by junior utility player Josh Lamberton at 2:59 in the first quarter.
Lamberton credits finding perfect angles in the water to his two goals scored during the game.
“I guess, it’s a lot of angles in the water,” Lamberton said. “If you can find the right angle, the open goal should be there.”
Lamberton also credits his successes in the water to his teammates.
“I would say having good chemistry with the team makes it easier setting picks with each other and fast ball movement,” Lamberton said.
Freshman utility player William Roby Ulkovich scored a goal at 6:37 in the second quarter for the Leopards.
The Tigers followed and scored two consecutive goals.
Junior attacker Tommy Gibson and junior utility player Timothy Robles scored a goal each, narrowing the gap between the Leopards and the Tigers.
Occidental followed with two consecutive goals and junior utility player Jordan Baker scored the last goal of the second quarter.
Occidental led, 8-7, going into halftime.
Junior attacker Tommy Gibson granted La Verne two more consecutive goals in the third quarter at 4:56 and 4:28 to give the Leopards the lead, 9-8.
Gibson credits his teammates’ help in being able to score two goals in under a minute.
“I was looking at Jordan hoping he would pass it and he did and I stepped out and scored,” Gibson said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that without him, without my teammates setting me up so great.”
Gibson also said that his success in the water was also due to the fact that he was able to trick Occidental’s players.
“Today I played center and I don’t usually play center so we were trying to psych them out with that and it worked for the most part,” Gibson said.
Occidental scored a goal after Gibson’s two goals, followed by a goal from Lamberton then a final goal from Occidental.
The score was tied at 10 going into the fourth quarter.
However, the quarter started off with four consecutive goals by Occidental, widening the margin to 14-10.
Baker scored the last goal for the Leopards at 1:19 bringing the final score to 14-11.
“I was playing a bit more physically than usual which has been a goal of mine for a while so that was working out,” Baker said.
Baker believes he can work on his mindset as he thinks mindset is an important element to the game.
“I think a lot of it is mindset, for sure, having the right mindset and playing a little bit more realistic,” Baker said.
The Leopards lost to Redlands, 14-10, Wednesday at the La Verne Aquatic Center to fall to 8-14 overall and 1-7 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
They will face Pomona-Pitzer at 1 p.m. on Nov. 1 in Claremont.
Karina Rodriguez can be reached at karina.rodriguez3@laverne.edu.
Karina Rodriguez is a senior journalism major with a concentration in broadcast journalism, and editor-in-chief of the Campus Times. She has previously served as sports editor, social media editor, arts editor and a staff writer.
Joseph Nocero is a senior photography major at the University of La Verne and a staff photographer for the Campus Times and photography editor for La Verne Magazine. His work can also be found at Joseph Nocero Photography.
