PASADENA, Calif. – The Caltech men's water polo team posted a 10-9 win over Connecticut College on Thursday afternoon at the Braun Pool to snap a seven year losing streak.
The win gave the Beavers their first win since the 2004 season when Caltech beat Occidental College.
Video - Kwong Sends the game into OT, Jerome Skelly Game Tying Goal, Sexton's Game Winning Five-Meter Shot
Post Game Interview - Coach Moser
"It feels amazing to end the losing streak. This whole season we've had glimpses of how good we can be, and we finally put it all together for an entire game. Now we want to carry this momentum into the remainder of our season," junior Jack Blackwood said. "The fact that the win came in such an exciting and hard-fought game is just icing on the cake and will hopefully give us the confidence to finish close games in the future."
In a game were neither team held a lead larger than two goals, the nip and tuck contest started with Connecticut holding a 2-1 lead after the first period.
Caltech tied the score with a Jerome Skelly goal less than two minutes into the second frame. After Connecticut retook lead with 3:59 left until intermission, back-to-back goals by Dan Sexton and Adam Khan nudged the Beavers in front for the first time. However, the visitors responded with two unanswered goals in taking a 5-4 edge after two periods.
Connecticut nudged in front 6-4 with their only goal of the third period. Sexton added his second goal of the day to get the Beavers within 6-5 after three stanzas.
In a wild fourth period, Caltech tied it up at 6-6 on Blackwood's second goal of the afternoon with 3:42 left in the contest. Connecticut retook the lead with a Sam Burns goal with 2:11 remaining. The Beavers forced the action and put the game into extra time when Tommy Kwong scored with 15 seconds left in the regulation.
Connecticut scored two goals in the first of two overtime periods but Blackwood found the back of the net on a beautiful no look goal with 29 seconds left in the first extra frame. Skelly tied the game at 9-9 with his second goal of the contest with 1:05 left in the final overtime period. Sexton buried a five meter penalty shot to seal the win with 23 seconds left in the game.
Blackwood and Sexton both tallied hat tricks in the victory to pace the Beavers offense.
The two squads will both head to the Convergence Tournament in Claremont, Calif. this weekend. They will face each other one more time as both teams play four games in two days.
NOTE - A previous version of this story had Caltech's losing streak at nine years. After some extra research, the last Caltech men's water polo win was during the 2004 season when they defeated Occidental.
