Over the course of this Friday and Saturday, the Biola’s men’s water polo team participated in the Gary Troyer tournament. During the tournament, the Eagles faced four teams: the McKendree University Bearcats, Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers, Whittier Poets and the growing rival Chapman University’s Panthers. 

EAGLES OPEN TOURNEY 1-2

Biola began the tournament strong and crushed the Bearcats 19-11. In this match, they scored the second most goals in school history, with every player chipping in: ten different Eagles scored goals in this game. This dominant performance came at a nice time, as Biola was able to avenge a 10-8 defeat to this Bearcats team in the same tournament a year ago. While the Eagles controlled game one, they were unable to continue this momentum in the following two games. Biola proceeded to drop the next game against the Mountaineers 11-9. They followed that with a loss against the Poets 9-7. 

REVENGE AGAINST CHAPMAN

Despite the sluggish record going into the finale of the tourney, Biola still finished the weekend on a great note. The Eagles had already played the Panthers two times in this early season. Both games, though nail biters, ultimately went Chapman’s way. However, this time Biola was finally able to come out on top 16-13, but once again the game came down to the very end. After three quarters, the game was deadlocked at eleven a piece. It was a big fourth quarter effort by center defender and sophomore business major John Grasso that separated the Eagles from their rival. Grasso scored three of Biola’s five fourth quarter goals and shot 100% on the game. It was his clutch late game heroics that propelled Biola to victory. 

Up next, Biola will face the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 1p.m. Stats from the match can be found on the Biola Athletics website.