PROVIDENCE, R.I. (October 19, 2024) - Mount St. Mary's men's water polo split their first pair of games in New England today with a 20-12 loss to Brown and a 15-11 win against UC Merced. With the win against the Bearcats, the Mount improves to 5-19 on the season.
 
The Mount started slow against Brown in game one, being outscored 3-14 in the first half in a testament to the Bears defense. Coming out of the halftime intermission, the Mount went on a tear by outscoring Brown 6-3 in the third quarter and eventually. Even with the Mountaineers outscoring their opponents in the second half 9-6, they were unable to complete the come back in game one of the weekends.
 
Alexandros Bellesis scored seven goals against the Bears, all the while achieving the 200-career goal mark at the Mount, the only person to achieve that feat. Chrysostomos Valavanis helped with the turnover game, drawing five exclusions against Brown.
 
Returning to play UC Merced, the Mountaineers started scoring early and matching the Bearcats 5-5 heading into the half. But the Mount put some distance between themselves and their opponents as they scored six times in the third quarter to eventually round out the game.
 
Drasko Sekaric scored five times against the Bearcats while Aaron Tarr scored on four occasions. Bellesis added a hat trick in the game followed by two goals by Jack Fox. Sekaric also contributed with five steals with Fox adding three more steals to the team's tally.
 
Brown 20, Mount St. Mary's 12

Team                          1    2    3    4     F 
Mount St. Mary's              1    2    6    3     12
Brown                         8    6    3    3     20
 
Goals: Bellesis 7, Tarr 3, Valavanis 1, Fischer 1
 
Saves: Hosni 8
 
 
 
Mount St. Mary's 15, UC Merced 11

Team                          1    2    3    4     F 
Mount St. Mary's              3    2    6    4     15
UC Merced                     2    3    3    3     10
 
Goals: Sekaric 5, Tarr 4, Bellesis 3, Fox 2, Lemishko 1
 
Saves: Marinkovic 12