Erie, PA—The Mercyhurst Men's Water Polo team was able to pick up their first wins of the season in their first and only home games of the season. The Lakers were able to knock off Washington and Jefferson University by a score of 17-8 in their first game and beat Salem University by a score of 20-8.

Game One vs Washington and Jefferson

Mercyhurst came out firing in their first game of the day, the Lakers were able to jump out to a 4-0 lead after the first quarter, Mercyhurst received goals from Joel Parnell and Derek Kagen, while Aleksa Vucurovic netted two in the opening frame.

In the second quarter the Lakers were able to win the quarter as they outscored the Presidents 4-3, Benjamin Villareal scored once, Mathieu Davis was able to net two in the second for the Lakers, while Vucurovic was able to complete his hat-trick before halftime.

After a slow start to the third quarter the Lakers were able to get goals from Parnell and Vucurovic less then 40 seconds apart. Davis would complete his hat-trick by the end of third quarter, Brennan Cumby decided he wanted to join the goal scorer club and added one in the third quarter.

The Lakers would get goals from Cumby, Parnell, Luke Tanner, and two from Teagan Thomas in the fourth quarter to secure the win. Nash Greeven made seven saves in the win while the Lakers had a .567 shooting percentage.

Game Two vs Salem

Despite having almost six hours between games the Lakers picked up right where they left off in the night game against Salem.

Davis would get the first goal of the game to get the Lakers an early lead. Michael Gutman would get his first of five goals in the contest at the 4:50 mark of the first frame. Mercyhurst would get goals from Kagen, Vucurovic, and lone senior Dylan Shaffer in the first quarter as the Lakers jumped out to a 5-3 lead.

In the second quarter, the Lakers went off, outscoring the Tigers 6-1. Mercyhurst received goals from Gutman, Davis, Thomas, Tanner, while Cumby added two to his goal total on the day. The Green and White went to halftime up 11-4.

Mercyhurst locked it down defensively once again in the third quarter allowing just one Tiger goal while adding four more to their score. Kagen, Vucurovic, Gutman, and Thomas would score in the third to push their lead to 10 as the score was 15-5.

The Lakers would finish the game off strong as they scored five in their final frame of the regular season. Kagen would complete his hat-trick, while Parnell would score his first of the game and third of the day. Gutman would get his fourth and fifth goals of the game and Cumby finished his hat-trick. Greeven once again was solid in net for the Lakers as he stopped nine Tiger shots.

Up Next

The Lakers will enter the postseason as they will prepare to compete in the Mid-Atlantic West Region Championships that will take place in Erie next weekend. Their schedule for the tournament has not been released at this time.