Last week in the water polo world, the UC Irvine Anteaters (8-7) lost 10-16 in an away battle against the USC Trojans (12-4) on Sunday, Oct. 2. USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center held both Anteaters and Trojans fans alike as the two teams faced-off for the second time this season.
Right out of the gate, the Trojans took the lead with back-to-back goals by graduate student driver Massimo Di Martire. Irvine’s sophomore center Tyler Padua returned fire with two center goals of his own. The opponents tallied three more goals, met by one goal scored by ‘Eater sophomore attacker Dylan Patist, closing the quarter at 5-3.
Early in the second quarter, a goal by sophomore driver Stewart Campbell brought the ‘Eaters within one point of the Trojans, at 5-4. Sophomore driver Jake Carter worked to bring the Trojans back into their lead, with assists to freshman drivers Evan Ausmus and Jack Vort, as well as a goal of his own. Vort’s shot was matched by an outside goal from Patist, late in the second quarter. With five seconds remaining in the first half, Di Martire found the back of the net, widening the Trojan’s lead to 9-4 at the buzzer.
He scored again early in the third quarter, while UCI and USC went back and forth with the Anteaters earning two goals to three scored by the Trojans. Quarter three closed out with the scoreboard reading 12-7.
The fourth and final quarter opened with a penalty fired by USC sophomore utility player Reed Stemler. Padua earned a hat trick, scoring his third goal of the game. USC and UC Irvine alternated successful attacks on goal, with shots perfectly executed by Anteaters sophomore attacker Ethan Shipman and sophomore utility Jack Stevens.
This brought the game to an end, with a final score of 16-10 and the Trojans coming out on top.
As for the Anteaters, they bounced back on Wednesday, Oct. 5 after defeating Concordia by a score of 21-12 and will cap off the week against Stanford on Friday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. at the Anteater Aquatics Complex.
Jensine Bugelli is a Sports Staff Writer for the Fall 2022 Quarter. She can be reached at jbugelli@uci.edu.