The Bison men’s water polo team completed a perfect sweep of its contests in the Bison Invitational held on Sept. 15-16. Picking up two wins each day, the Bison overcame La Salle, Washington & Jefferson, Fordham, and Salem, improving to an 8-1 record for the season.

In the first match, the Bison defeated La Salle by a score of 23-9. Scott Little ’21 scored six goals to lead the Bison attack. Altogether, 11 different players on the roster recorded goals in the game.

In net, Jack Otto ’22 limited La Salle to two goals over the first three quarters and made eight saves. During the match, Rade Joksimovic ’20 registered nine points, including six assists to move into eighth place on the program’s all-time points leaderboard.

The Bison followed up their impressive performance with a 24-8 defeat of Washington & Jefferson. The result marked the first time the Bison netted more than 20 goals in back-to-back games since 2000.

Joksimovic led the way for the Orange and Blue by scoring six goals and dishing out four assists. Cooper Dolan ’20 and Jared Stanley ’21 helped key the offense as they combined for nine goals. The Bison started off strong, netting five unanswered goals in the first three minutes to begin the game, and they never looked back.

After overcoming a furious comeback from Fordham on Sept. 16, the Bison continued their winning ways with a narrow 9-7 victory over the Rams. Otto played superbly in net once again, registering 11 saves.

Offensively, the Bison were paced by Dolan, who tallied four goals. In addition, Logan Schofield ’20 scored two goals while also drawing eight ejections, and Jack Lewis ’22 came up with three steals.

In their final match of the weekend, the Bison exploded for 22 goals in a 22-11 victory over Salem. Salem could not find an answer for Joksimovic, who contributed a season-best 14 points on six goals and eight assists. With those goals, he became the fourth Bison in history to eclipse 300 career goals and now sits just three points shy of 400 career points. Otto helped both defensively and offensively, registering eight saves and a new career-high six assists.

“The last game was great because we showed teamwork and unity when we needed it the most but we should have executed our defense better,” said Joksimovic. “We will be working on our defense and I hope for the rest of the season we keep making progress and have each others’ backs in good times and bad.”

The Bison will look to build upon their success and vault further up the rankings in their next match against George Washington on Sept. 29.