Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Water Polo Team Drops Two In California
10/12/2001 8:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Oct. 12, 2001
CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Bucknell men's water polo team traveled to the West Coast over fall break for the annual Claremont Convergence, held at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Friday and Saturday, October 12-13. On the first day of competition, the Bison suffered a 13-9 overtime loss to Brigham Young University of Hawaii before falling to LaVerne, ranked seventh in the country in Division III, 7-5.
Against BYU-Hawaii, the Orange and Blue got three goals, two assists and four ejections drawn from sophomore Jamie Saettele (St. Louis, Mo./Ladue Horton Watkins), but it was not enough as the first year squad defeated BU 13-9 in overtime. Freshman Elliot Benoist (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis Country Day), back in competition for the first time since returning from an injury, also contributed offensively with two goals and one assist. Junior Daniel Lonnerdal (Davis, Calif./Davis) notched two goals and passed out one assist, in addition to recording one steal and one ejection drawn in his home state. Junior Adam Yerkes (Orlando, Fla./Winter Park) led the way defensively, grabbing four steals and registering two ejections drawn. In addition, senior David Kennedy (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis Country Day) recorded 14 saves in goal.
In the second game, things did not get much better as the Bison fell for the sixth-straight time to a nationally ranked team. LaVerne, the country's seventh best team in Division III, fended off the pesky Bucknell squad for a 7-5 victory. Junior Chris Saxton (Palo Alto, Calif./Palo Alto) was Bucknell's team-leader in goals, finding the back of the net twice. Kennedy recorded 14 saves for the second-consecutive game.
BU falls to 4-9 overall and will take on Whittier, ranked eighth in the latest Division III poll, tomorrow at 5:45 p.m. ET, before challenging Occidental in its final game of the trip at 9:30 p.m.
