THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (Oct. 6, 2021) – Caltech men's water polo played a hard-fought match Wednesday against the California Lutheran University Kingsmen at Samuelson Aquatics Center in Thousand Oaks.

The Beavers played a very defensive-minded first half and slowed the strong CLU squad as much as they could, though fatigue set in for the thin roster immediately after the first quarter of play and led to a 13-3 halftime score.

Head Coach Jon Bonafede rotated the squad as much as he could in the second half, handing junior Juan Arvelo (Miami, Fla. / Riviera Prep) his debut in goal and getting more work for recent graduate student addition Andrew Graven (Redondo Beach, Calif. / Cornell Univ.), who made two saves on a team-best .400 percentage for the day.

Caltech focused the offensive load more than in previous matches, with junior Matthew Hajjar (San Jose, Calif. / The Harker School) taking the season lead with a hat trick to reach 19 total goals. Classmate Max Bricken (Portland, Ore. / Westview) notched a brace and rookie Sean Zheng (San Marino, Calif. / Polytechnic School) tallied once while combining with sophomore Perry Samimy (Miami, Fla. / Ransom Everglades) for five assists. Bricken and Samimy also combined for seven steals.

The Beavers tried to limit turnovers while seeking dangerous forward passes and would try to slow the game down, making it difficult for the Kingsmen to counter attack. The last three minutes of the game were particularly exciting as Caltech pressed on defense and generated a few steals leading to great attacking opportunities. This change in defense disrupted the Kingsmen's rhythm as they were not able to score again while backed up against their own goal.

"The team played hard tonight and we stayed composed while executing our game plan," Bonafede said.  "We are still building for later games in the season and we still have our best water polo in front of us."

The Beavers will take their lessons and experienced gained from this match into Saturday's contest at Whittier College at 11 a.m.