LOS ANGELES - On Friday, Augustana College men's water polo (2-5, 0-0) kicked off their run at the Gary Troyer Tournament with matches against the California Institute of Technology (6-6, 0-1) and Occidental College (5-9, 0-1). Augie took care of business in game one, dominating Caltech 27-3, before dropping a close, 13-10 contest against Occidental.
Game one - Augie 27-3 CIT
Inside the box score
Ian Palmroos dropped five goals on six shots.
Lincoln Nicholson, Bence Kovacs-Siklosi, and Logan Waldron each had an assist.
Ethan Hutton made eight saves on 11 shots faced.
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How it happened
The Vikings jumped out to an early lead, scoring three goals in the opening three minutes before Caltech got on the board. Another four Augie goals in the closing minutes, including back-to-back scores from Palmroos, made it 7-1. CIT did score a last-second goal to close the gap to five after the first frame.
Augie struck twice more in the first 60 seconds of the second quarter to up their lead to 9-2. After nearly three minutes of scoreless action, Caltech scored their third and final goal of the game. Augustana would score six more goals to take a 15-3 lead before the first half ended, with goalkeeper Hutton getting in on the scoring with a buzzer-beater.
Augustana controlled all of the second half, keeping Caltech off the board while scoring another 12 goals to finalize the score at 27-3.
Game two - OCC 13-10 Augie
Inside the box score
Palmroos added another pair of goals to his day's total, tying Cole Faux, Rhys Lomax, and Malte Faltstrom for the team lead.
Nicholson, Palmroos, Ben Symington, and Luke Burger added assists.
Marcos Moret Roldan tallied seven saves.
How it happened
Lomax gave Augie a 1-0 lead just over a minute into the game, but Occidental tied things up less than 40 seconds later. Four minutes then passed before Lomax struck again to put Augustana back in front. Once more though, Occidental responded quickly to equalize the game before scoring again with 15 seconds left in the quarter to take a 3-2 lead.
The first two goals of the second frame belonged to Occidental to up their lead to 5-2. An Augustana goal would cut the deficit to two, but another two Occidental goals closed out the first half with Occidental leading 7-3.
Augie started a comeback with two goals to open the third period. An Occidental score briefly expanded their lead back to four, but another two goals from the Vikings made it a two-score game again. After another Occidental goal, two more Augie goals continued to close the gap, but Occidental closed the third with a goal, setting their lead at 9-7 heading into the final quarter.
Occidental padded their lead with two goals in the first three minutes of the fourth. Augie would negate those two goals with a pair of their own, but Occidental's 12th and 13th goal put the game on ice. The Vikings scored once more with half a minute left to set the final score at 13-10.
Up next
The Vikings close out the Gary Troyer Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 3, with another pair of games. At 9:45 a.m. PST, they play Whittier before facing Chapman at 2:45 p.m. PST.
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Augustana men's water polo by following the team on Twitter at @augieathletics, on Facebook at Augustana Vikings Athletics, and on Instagram at @augiewaterpolo.
