The No. 10 men’s water polo team traveled to Saratoga, Calif. and Santa Clara, Calif. Oct. 22-23 for the Santa Clara Rodeo. On Oct. 22, the Bison opened the day with a tough 9-7 loss to California Baptist University (Cal Baptist). However, this loss didn’t stop them from beating Loyola Marymount, Fresno Pacific, and Air Force over the remainder of the weekend.

The Bison started against Cal Baptist with an early 3-0  lead, but the Lancers quickly answered back. Throughout the game, Ratimir Babic ’17 and Nate Hunter ’17 led the team with two goals apiece. Tommy Stupp ’18, R.J. Moore ’17, and Rade Joksimovic ’20 also all added one goal each but Cal Baptist took the lead in the fourth quarter.

In the second game, the Bison had the lead the entire first half but Loyala Marymount managed to tie it up to bring the game to overtime. The Lions had the opportunity to push through in overtime but Joksimovic scored two goals moving the Bison closer to a victory. Babic scored in the last seconds for a 11-9 win. Babic also had two total goals along with five goals from Joksimovic, two from Jeff Hagen ’18, and a goal each from Sean Daley ’17 and Cooper Dolan ’20. Goalie Charlie Niehaus ’18 had 12 saves against Cal Baptist and finished stronger against the Lions with 14 saves.

The Bison ended the weekend on a positive note, beating Fresno Pacific 14-4 and Air Force 13-5 on Oct. 23. The record for the weekend was 3-1. In their first game against Fresno Pacific, Joksimovic had four goals while Hunter, Stupp, Hagen, and Daley each had two.

Joksimovic carried the squad again against Air Force with seven goals tallying a total of 107 on the year, ranking ninth in the program’s single season goal list. Daley had two goals. Hagen, Babic, Moore, and Logan Schofield ’20 all added one goal apiece. Niehaus recorded a total of 16 saves, eight in each game.

“We lost the first game because we didn’t play like a team and we didn’t use our chances, but after that we found our game and because of it, we won our next three games,” Joksimovic said.

The Bison will jump back into action Nov. 5-6 with three home games against Fordham, Wagner, and Johns Hopkins. This busy weekend will complete the Bison’s regular season play.