IRVINE, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans men's water polo team were defeated by the No. 8 UC Irvine Anteaters 21-7 on Friday night at the Anteater Aquatics Complex.
With tonight's win for the Anteaters, they secured the Big West regular season title and the No. 1 seed at the Big West Championship. The Titans will be the No .6 seed where they will take on the No. 3 seed in the Championship first round.
Alec Isaacman and
Julian Nichols led the team with two goals a piece. Â
Dominic Hernandez,
Togan Ozbek, and
Francisco Paredes each chipped in with a goal. Â With Nichols two goals tonight, he now has 98 career goals in a Titans uniform.Â
Garrett Henderson made 9 saves in the cage for the Titans.
Both sides scored on their first possessions of the game as Jack Stevens started the scoring for the Anteaters while
Alec Isaacman scored for the Titans to start the game. Â However, the Anteaters scored six unanswered goals and led 7-1 at the end of the first period.
The Titans added two goals in the third quarter as
Togan Ozbek scored on a 5-meter penalty and
Francisco Paredes scored on a powerplay. Â The Anteaters led 17-4 after three quarters.
The Titans scored the first three goals of the final quarter as Dominic Hernadez opened the scoring on a beautiful skip shot to beat the shot clock.
The Titans got two goals in succession from
Julian Nichols to make it a 17-7 game. Â However, the Anteaters scored four goals over the final three minutes to stretch the lead to 21-to-7.
The Titans will return home on Sunday for their final game of the regular season in a non-conference match up against CBU. Â The Titans will honor 14 seniors in a pregame ceremony (
Bende Aubeli,
Aaron Ayala,
Nico D'Angelo,
Zack Ewing,
Garrett Henderson,
Dominic Hernandez,
Alec Isaacman,
Will Johnson,
Shelby Johnson,
Julian Nichols,
Togan Ozbek,
Bradley Pearce,
Reese Starkey, and
Seth Zarn.
SUPPORT THE TITANS!
Fans can purchase tickets for various Cal State Fullerton athletic events by visiting FullertonTitansTickets.com. The Athletic Ticket Office can also be contacted by phone at 657-278-2783 or by email at athletictixs@fullerton.edu. The Ticket Office is located at the Titan House off of Gymnasium Drive at the eastern end of the Intramural Fields and is open from 10 am – 4 pm PT, Monday – Friday.Â
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Fans can keep up with the latest in Titan Athletics by following us on Facebook (Facebook/FullertonTitans), Twitter (@FullertonTitans) Instagram (@FullertonTitans). In addition, the water polo teams have established their own Twitter (@Fullerton_WP) and Instagram accounts (@Fullerton_WP).
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