IRVINE, Calif. — Fresno Pacific men's water polo (6-18, 2-4 WWPA) fell to three-time conference champion Concordia (19-11, 6-0 WWPA) 17-7 on Saturday. The Sunbirds scored three goals in the first quarter but were held to one goal in each of the next two quarters before adding two in the fourth. The Sunbirds converted four power-play goals and finished with 27 shots.
"This weekend was a great chance to test ourselves against the current top two teams in our conference," said head coach
Jonathan Miller. "While we didn't get the end result we were looking for, our guys competed hard throughout both games and are ready for the conference tournament in two weeks. I believe our best polo is still ahead of us and we're looking forward to competing for the WWPA championship title."
The Sunbirds answered Concordia's opening goal at 6:47 of the first quarter when
Ryder Stermer scored off
Luke Young's assist at 6:31, and
Tristin Fox later converted a power play from Young at 5:11 after Concordia scored again. The Golden Eagles then scored four consecutive goals before Stermer struck again with a second left in the first on a
Chase Hammes assist. The second quarter followed a similar pattern, as Concordia scored five straight before
Yanti Quijada converted a power play from
Jesse Bryan at :43. Concordia opened the third with goals at 7:20 and 6:39, the Sunbirds got a response from
Jonah Mutchler at 5:07, netting his first goal of his career! In the fourth,
Ryan Scott scored on a power play from
Colton Parks at 4:46 and Bryan added a power-play goal from
Giacomo Hernandez at :15 to close out the game, 7-17.
Stermer scored a team-high two goals on four shots and added a steal, a field block and two exclusions drawn.
Luke Young recorded a team-high two assists and added a field block. Hammes posted 10 saves in goal while adding an assist and a steal.
The Sunbirds are 6-18 overall and 2-4 in WWPA play.
CLICK HERE to view the 2026 WWPA Championships Tournament Central.
NEXT UP: Fresno Pacific is the No. 3 West seed heading into the WWPA Championships hosted by Biola University on November 20-22. FPU kick off quarterfinals against the No. 2 East seed on Nov. 20th at 4pm!
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