After a very strong six weeks to open the season, Fordham Water Polo braced for their toughest test yet — a trip out to the West Coast to play some of the nation’s top programs. The trip to California featured six games, all against nationally ranked opponents, including a match against last year’s NCAA champion University of California.
Five of the six teams entered the weekend ranked above the Rams with the only exception being #17 Santa Clara University, just one spot behind #16 ranked Fordham. Head coach Brian Bacharach has been eyeing this gauntlet since the start of the season.
“It was by design that we chose this weekend. The idea being to see how we can do against top competition, and doing it late in October when we’re healthy and in peak condition,” Bacharach said.
The Rams rolled into the trip with a checkmark on both counts. With two more wins the previous week, Fordham extended their winning streak to 10 games, nine coming against Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) opponents. Arguably more important, junior goalkeeper Thomas Lercari, named First Team All-MAWPC last season, had just made his season debut after an upper body injury sidelined him for over a month.
When it was all said and done, the Rams would take just two of their six California games. But the record doesn’t quite tell the story. Action began on Wednesday night against #15 University of Pacific. Pacific entered the year ranked #6 in the CWPA preseason polls, but had dropped nine spots on the heels of a four-game losing streak.
Fordham would grab a fourth-quarter lead twice thanks to markers from juniors Luca Silvestri and Jacopo Parrella. Pacific, however, proved difficult to dispense of, evening the match at 10 before netting a man-up goal with 39 seconds left to give the Tigers an 11-10 lead. The Rams came mere inches away from sending the contest into overtime as sophomore Balazs Berenyi hit the post with seven seconds left. Pacific converted an empty net goal as time expired to secure a 12-10 victory, snapping Fordham’s 10-game winning streak.
Fordham returned the very next day to take on #2 Cal, the reigning water polo champions of the NCAA. The Rams kept things close early as junior George Papanikolaou netted a last-second shot to tie things at four following one quarter of play. Cal would pull away to an 8-6 lead at halftime on two goals in the final 90 seconds, and carried that momentum into the third quarter, jumping out to a 12-7 lead.
The Rams showed some fight, clawing back within three on Silvestri’s third goal, but Cal responded quickly with the next four goals en route to a 18-11 win. Papanikolaou and Silvestri both posted hat tricks, but the Rams struggled to compete for the game’s entirety against last year’s champs. Friday marked the start of the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament.
#14 San Jose State University was first on the docket, handing Fordham their third straight loss in a tight 10-8 contest.
The Rams once again put themselves in a position to win with the game tied at eight late in the fourth quarter. San Jose State grabbed a 9-8 lead with 1:38 left in the fourth quarter, and the Rams were unable to respond, coming up empty on two man-advantage opportunities.
The Spartans added a penalty shot goal to secure the win as Fordham fell in another close but frustrating contest.
Despite a frustrating 0-3 start to the west coast swing, the Rams would wipe the slate clean, picking up a pair of wins against #13 Cal Baptist University and #17 Santa Clara University to turn things back in their favor.
The Rams flexed their offensive muscles in their largest win of the trip, posting an astounding seven goals in the second quarter, to help clinch a 15-10 victory. Barnabas Eppel shined in the finest game of his freshman season, posting a game-high five goals, four of which came in the second quarter, while Papanikolaou added a hat trick of his own.
Their victory against Santa Clara didn’t come as easy, as the Rams found themselves trailing 7-4 at halftime. Fordham flipped the script in the second half, outscoring the Broncos 8-3 in the second half, completing the Saturday sweep with a 12-10 comeback victory.
Eppel shined once again, posting a hat trick to cap off an eight-goal day, while Papanikolaou added six points in another impressive performance.
Sunday left just one final matchup against #4 Pepperdine University, a rematch of the Rams season opener in which Fordham fell 16-10.
Trailing 15-13 with 2:38 left in the contest, Fordham was able to hold Pepperdine scoreless, but junior Lucas Nieto Jasny hit the post twice in the final minutes. He converted on a late man-up goal to cut the lead to one, but it proved to be too little, too late, as Pepperdine escaped with a 15-14 win.
Silvestri had four goals accompanied by hat tricks from Nieto Jasny and senior Christos Loupakis in yet another hard fought loss.
Despite two gritty wins, it’s the tight losses that stand out most from this trip. “It was a tough week,” remarked Bacharach. “We lost some games that we really shouldn’t have.”
In three of their four losses, Fordham trailed by just one goal in the final minute and had late opportunities to either tie or win. Bacharach conceded that their late game play left something to be desired.
“We could’ve won four or five games. I think the message is that we need to learn how to win those one-goal games. In games that were close in the fourth quarter, we were 1-3. So that’s an area of improvement we need to continue to get better at.”
That’s not to say that the Rams shouldn’t be incredibly proud of how they battled. “It was an exhausting week,” admitted Bacharach.
Fordham played six games over five days, all against ranked opponents. “I think that was one of my biggest lessons learned. I don’t think we’ve ever scheduled so tough when we’re going out to California.”
“I actually think it was more difficult mentally than physically,” Bacharach said in a moment of reflection. “It’s just like day after day, you’re having to be on point against these top teams. It can be tough and it was. We’ll probably make some adjustments to it next year.”
The Rams still hold a 16-7 record overall and, thanks to some competitive play from a fully healthy roster, have proven that they can in fact compete with the very upper echelon of water polo programs.
Fordham will look ahead now to closing out their season with the MAWPC tournament just three weeks away.
Protecting a perfect record in conference play, they’ll play three of their four remaining MAWPC games this weekend.
