UCLA Pounds Pomona-Pitzer, 22-6

Saturday, October 10

Malibu, CA

8:00 AM

UCLA

Pomona-Pitzer

Photo by: UCLA Athletics

UCLA Pounds Pomona-Pitzer, 22-6

October 10, 2015 | Men's Water Polo

By: UCLA Athletics

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MALIBU, Calif., -- The top-ranked UCLA Bruins improved to 14-0 on the year with a 22-6 win over Pomona-Pitzer (6-8) in the first round of the 2015 Kap7 SoCal Invitational on Saturday morning.

The Bruins were led by a quartet of players with hat tricks, including juniors Alec Zwaneveld and Joey Fuentes as well as redshirt freshman Austin Rone and freshman Spencer Farrar. UCLA improved to 8-0 all-time against the Sagehens. The three goals marked a career-high for Rone and tied a career-best for Zwaneveld.

UCLA pitched a shut out in the first period, outscoring Pomona-Pitzer, 4-0. Junior Ryder Roberts got the Bruins on the board first with a counter attack and lob shot that beat the goalie (6:58). Junior Patrick Fellner made it 2-0 (5:11) with a goal from the front court. Farrar scored on a counter to put the Bruins up 3-0 (3:00). Sophomore Jack Grover fired a strike from the front court to end the scoring in the first (0:02) to give UCLA a 4-0 lead.

Sophomore Alex Roelse scored a power play goal at set to open the scoring in the second (7:30). Pomona-Pitzer got a power play goal from Adam Ward (5:38) to end the Sagehens' scoring drought. Fellner added his second of the match on a 6-on-5 opportunity (4:57) and Farrar added his second on a counter attack (2:57) to push the lead to 7-1. James Baker scored from the front court for Pomona-Pitzer to cut the lead to 7-2 (2:44). But the Bruins scored the final three goals of the period to build a 10-2 lead by halftime. Sophomore Matt Farmer scored a power play goal (2:13), followed by a counter goal from redshirt freshman David Stiling (1:32) and a goal at set from Zwaneveld (0:42).

Phillip Clayman opened the scoring in the third with a back-handed at set (7:38) to make it 10-3. But Fuentes got a steal and score (6:00) to start a five-goal run by five different Bruins to increase the lead to 15-3. Sophomore James Robinson (5:10) followed with his first goal on a power play, and Rone knotched his first on a counter (4:45). Farrar completed his hat trick (3:06) with a score from the front court and Fuentes added his second on a counter attack (2:25). After Baker scored his second for the Sagehens from distance (1:59) to cut the lead to 15-4, Rone scored again from the front court (0:42) and junior Patrick Woepse scored from two meters (0:19) to end the scoring in the third with UCLA leading 17-4.

Zwaneveld opened the fourth with back-to-back goals at set (7:11, 4:21) to complete his hat trick and push the lead to 19-4. Ward scored his second at two meters for Pomona-Pitzer (4:00) to make it 19-5. But Grover tallied his second on a 6-on-5 opportunity (3:27) and Rone completed his hat trick (2:30) with a goal from the front court as the Bruins' lead increased to 21-5. Baker then registered his second goal from the front court for Pomona-Pitzer (2:14) but Fuentes completed his hat trick with a goal from the front court (1:46) to provide the 22-6 final.

Freshman Alex Wolf started in the cage and played the entire match for UCLA, registering five saves while allowing six goals. He was also credited with two steals. Daniel Diemer started in goal for Pomona-Pitzer, going the distance for four saves while allowing 22 goals.

UCLA went 6-for-9 on power plays while Pomona-Pitzer went 1-for-3. Neither team attempted a penalty shot.

The Bruins return to action this afternoon at 2:40 p.m. in a quarterfinal bout with eighth-seeded UC Irvine, which was a 13-12 victor over ninth-seeded Pepperdine in the first round.

No. 1 UCLA vs. Pomona Pitzer (Kap7 SoCal Invitational - First Round)