Seanette Garcia

University of La Verne sophomore driver Gerald Bolson outmaneuvers his opponent to score against Fresno Pacific Oct. 13 at the La Verne Aquatics Center. The Leopards ultimately claimed a victory over the Sunbirds with the final score of 15-10 and now have an overall season record of 4-14. The Leopards will face Whittier Saturday before traveling to Occidental on Oct. 24.

Jennifer Gilderman
Staff Writer

Despite going into last weekend with a record of 2-13 on the season, the La Verne men’s water polo team made a huge splash in returning to their home pool, defeating Fresno Pacific, 15-10, and Connecticut College, 11-4.

It was the first time in more than a month that the Leopards were back home, which seemed to make a difference.

“I think we are continuing to make good progress,” assistant coach Justin Haas said.

The back-to-back wins came at a good time for the Leopards, as they have struggled to win games due to a difficult, competitive schedule.

“Even though our opponents weren’t as difficult than in the past, our offensive and defensive plays still work well and continued to improve,” Haas said.

ULV started the day against Fresno Pacific and took an early 6-4 lead in the first half.

The Leopards stayed strong throughout the second half, eventually beating the Sunbirds, 9-6.

Utility player Vince MaKuch led the pack with three goals, while senior driver Seth Shelton, senior Duncan Cox and junior Sean Steele each finished with a pair.

“We did a good job at controlling our game and setting a good tempo,” said senior driver Andrew McPartland.

“Everything went well,” Cox said. “People wanted to win, people wanted to score, our offense was good and going in our direction.”

Later in the afternoon La Verne sailed to a victory over Connecticut, 11-4.
La Verne took the early lead, 4-0 at the end of the first quarter. and held Connecticut to just one goal by the end of the half.

“We get excited when we lead,” McPortland said. “So we were able to eliminate some of those mental mistakes and stay focused.”

Shelton scored twice early on in the first quarter and added two more later in the game, posting a game high of four goals.

Junior Julian Czerwiec and sophomore Gerald Bolson each chipped in two a piece.

“The guys are continuing to work diligently in succeeding as a team and promoting and encouraging each other to reach for a common goal,” Haas said.

Both matches were non-conference games, but the ULV team has been showing signs of improvement.

“We had individual break-downs rather than team break downs,” Cox said. “This shows we’re working together as a team, but still need to step it up on an individual basis.”

Now standing at 4-14 overall, and 0-2 in conference, following a 17-8 loss to Redlands on Wednesday, La Verne will continue Southern California Inter­colleg­iate Athletic Confer­ence play this week as they travel to Whittier on Saturday and to Occidental on Oct. 24.

Jennifer Gilderman can be reached at jgilderman@ulv.edu.