On Saturday, Aug. 30, the third-ranked Fordham Water Polo team began their season at the Bruno Classic, hosted at Harvard University. The two day event featured several top-ranked opponents including ninth-ranked University of the Pacific and Harvard, who started the season ranked No. 18, with Long Island University (LIU) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) rounding out the field.
On day one of the classic, the Rams secured wins against MIT and Harvard.
Against MIT, the game started off slow. A low scoring first quarter had the Rams leading 2-1 before they turned it up in the second quarter, scoring eight times to build a 10-4 halftime lead with sophomores Luca Provenziani and Andras Toth each netting hat tricks in the first half. The Rams remained in control in the second half, scoring five times in both the third and fourth quarter to cap a 20-8 victory.
In the second game, Fordham faced off against Harvard. The Rams took a 5-2 lead after the first quarter via a pair of goals by senior Balazs Berenyi. Graduate student Matthew Bonello DuPuis made three saves in the second quarter to keep the lead. The Rams led 11-8, but would score three of the first four goals to open the final frame, before going on to win 15-11.
On Aug. 31, the Rams completed a perfect weekend. The Rams opened the day by beating Pacific, before defeating LIU.
Going into day two, the Rams would be faced with their biggest challenge of the weekend in ninth-ranked Pacific. The Rams led 3-2 after the first quarter. They went on to score the first three goals of the second quarter to build up a 6-2 lead. Pacific mounted a small comeback to bring the score to 8-6, but a goal by junior Barnabas Eppel with 0.1 second left in the quarter gave Fordham a 9-6 lead at the half. The Rams scored the opening four goals of the third quarter for a 13-6 lead. Fordham went on to win 18-14. The team was led by sophomore Andras Toth with a game-high five goals for Fordham.
In their second game of the day, the Rams dominated, scoring seven times in the first half, while netting six in the third quarter and five in the fourth for a blowout win, 25-5. Next up for the Rams is the Princeton Invitational from Sept. 6-7. Fordham will face defending national champion University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Santa Clara University. In addition, the Rams will have an exhibition contest on Sept. 6 against Ferencvárosi TC, a Hungarian-based club team that recently won the Champions League.
