Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Score (Game 1): UC Davis 23, UC Merced 10
Score (Game 2): UC Davis 13, Harvard 11
Location: Santa Clara/San Jose, Calif. (Sullivan Aquatic Center/SRAC)
Records: UC Davis 14-7, UC Merced 1-16, Harvard 10-12

SANTA CLARA, SAN JOSE, Calif. — After a dominant win over UC Merced in game one of the day, UC Davis men's water polo withstood a late 4-0 run by No. 18 Harvard to secure a 13-11 victory on Saturday, Oct. 24.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME 1)

• The Aggies got off to a quick start in period one with the first three goals of the game. Luka Palavra, Thomas Kiesling and Oriol Viñas went back-to-back-to-back to find the back of the net.
• Lucas Wulfhorst and Max Prokhin responded to the first Bobcat goal before Gabe Bensen joined them on the board a minute later on the way to a 6-2 lead after one.
• UC Davis added eight more on the board in the second, including two each from Jaden Joemtree and Oleg Shatskikh.
• Palavra, Wulfhorst, Ned Ginoti and Cassius Wolf also got tallies in this period. However, they also gave up four, leading to a 14-6 lead at half.
• Jumping back in the pool for the second half, the scoring slowed down on both sides. Ginoti got a hat trick in the third on back-to-back nets while Andrew Bonelli also added one of his own.
• Now up 17-7, hat tricks began to stack up for the Aggies in the fourth period, as both Bensen and Lucas Ruano got their third goals, with Ruano cashing in all of his goals in the period.
• Oliver Wilmink also scored in this period, as UC Davis began their tournament with a wire-to-wire 23-10 victory over UC Merced.

HOW IT HAPPENED (GAME 2)

• Both teams went blow for blow to begin the first period, with Austin Quick and Shatskikh responding to Crimson goals in the first four minutes.
• Two straight scores gave Harvard its first lead of the day, but Prokhin evened things up with 43 seconds remaining at three apiece heading into the second.
• Viñas and Kiesling were the next Aggies to get on the board, but they were meant with responses by Harvard to keep things tied with a minute left in the half.
• Over the next five minutes of gameplay, Davis went on the offensive, gathering five straight goals by Wulfhorst, Palavra, Kiesling, and Timothy Kerr to go up 10-7 heading into the fourth.
• In quarter number four, Davis pushed its lead back up to five off two more scores by Viñas and Quick.
• With three minutes remaining, Harvard began to push Davis to the brink with four straight goals, ending up down just one, 11-12, with 12 seconds left.
• As the Aggies took a timeout with just nine seconds left, they secured the victory with a last second goal, leading to a 13-11 win and securing a perfect Saturday of water polo.\

UP NEXT: The Julian Fraser Memorial will wrap up on Sunday, Oct. 25 with an early morning matchup against No. 6 Princeton. The game is set to begin at 8:00 am PT and live stats will be on The Fosh.

ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS: 

UC Davis Athletics represents one of the nation's premier public universities on the NCAA Division I stage, with more than 650 student-athletes competing across 25 sports, including 16 programs in the Mountain West Conference. Located in California's quintessential college town, UC Davis combines championship-level athletics with the academic excellence of the nation's #8 public research university and is home to the nation's No. 1 programs in agriculture, veterinary medicine and sustainability. With a growing national media presence, bold investments in facilities and the student-athlete experience, and a tradition of developing champions in competition, in the classroom and beyond, the Aggies are elevating UC Davis on a national stage.