Austin College Splits on Opening Day of 2025 Campaign

SOUTHLAKE, Texas - The Austin College men's water polo team split its first two games of the 2025 season on the first day of the Austin College Invite hosted at Southlake Carroll on Saturday, dropping a 16-8 contest against NCAA Division II opponent California-Merced before holding off NAIA foe Ottawa (Ariz.) 10-9 for the team's first victory of the year.

In the first game of the day, Austin College scored first with a goal by Aidan Wade, but UC Merced scored four in a row to take a 4-1 lead after the opening quarter. The lead grew to 10-2 at halftime as Merced tallied six times in the second frame, but Austin College put together a strong third quarter to cut it to 11-5 heading into the fourth. Wade, Carlos Camarena, and Sebastian Scheier each tallied in the third for the 'Roos.

UC Merced scored the first two goals of the final frame to push the margin to 13-5 before Camarena scored again with 5:51 left, but Merced put two more in the back of the cage to expand the lead to 15-6 with just over three minutes left to play. Viktor Buscemi and Owen Altermatt each scored to cut it to 15-8 with 1:06 left before UC Merced got one more goal with 47 seconds left to make it a 16-8 final. Wade and Camarena each had a pair of goals to lead the 'Roos while Preston Fiala, Scheier, Buscemi, and Altermatt scored once each. Caleb Maddox had eight blocks in goal for Austin College.

In the second game of the day against Ottawa, Jack Stack scored less than a minute into the contest to put the 'Roos on top and the score remained 1-0 until a tally from Ottawa with 4:26 on the clock to even things up, but Camarena found the back of the cage at the 3:57 mark to give the lead back to Austin College. Fiala pushed the margin to 3-1 on an assist from Camarena 25 seconds later, before Ottawa scored to cut it to 3-2 after one quarter of play.

Austin College would take a 6-4 lead into halftime, but Ottaway outscored the 'Roos 3-1 in the third quarter to make it a 7-7 game heading into the final frame. Scheier scored 57 seconds into the fourth to put Austin College ahead for good, and he scored again with 3:27 mark to make the lead 9-7. Ottawa cut it to a 9-8 game 17 seconds later, but Camarena scored what would prove to be the decisive goal at the 2:49 mark to make it 10-8, with Ottawa scoring once more to make it 10-9 before the 'Roo defense clamped down in the final two and a half minutes of play to seal the victory.

Austin College is back in the pool on Sunday, facing off against Caltech at 10:00 a.m. before closing out the weekend with a matchup against Johns Hopkins at 1:00 p.m.