DAVIS, Calif. --- Without a doubt the most searing disappointment of the regular season was Biola Men's Water Polo's decisive loss at Fresno Pacific in late-September. Head Coach Rick Nordell's resilient and driven bunch answered back for that defeat in a major way on Friday morning during day one of the Western Water Polo Association Men's Championship.

Biola scored the first goal of the game to establish a flicker of early confidence. Unfortunately, though, Fresno Pacific dominated much of the first half to take a 7-3 lead to halftime. Then, the Biola men got their legs under them and put together their most impressive 16 minutes of the season in the second half. 

The Eagles outscored FPU 4-2 in the third quarter and then 3-0 in the final frame to shock the Sunbirds and pick up the team's first-ever win over a WWPA opponent. The final score of 10-9 allows Biola to advance to a round two matchup against host school and top seed UC Davis (15-8, 7-1 WWPA) at 2 p.m. Friday.

"I was very proud of my guys and how they did not get down when we were down on the board," said Nordell. "This was a tangible example that we are improving since they beat us so easily the first time and we were able to come back and make a game of it this time.

Kenny Wulf scored all three of Biola's goals in the final period to lift the team to triumph. The Eagles were out-swimming Fresno Pacific up-and-down the pool throughout the full second-half, taking advantage of being the clearly better conditioned team to pile on goals."

The first of Wulf's three final stanza scores came on one of those hard-earned breakaways. Biola had a 3-2 advantage as Wulf received the ball on the left post about a full body length ahead of his defender. He popped up, pumped once and buried it under the right arm of the FPU keeper.

That score brought BU back within one, after trailing by as much as four early in the first half. A defensive stop equated to another opportunity on transition for BU. Maxwell Osborn drew a 5-meter penalty and handed the ball off to his all-conference teammate Wulf to attempt the game-tying effort. Wulf got suit-high and buried the penalty effort just inside the right post as the FPU keeper barely had time to get out of the water.

That knotted the game at 9-9 with 4:56 still left to play in this one. At that point, Biola had began to take care of the ball better and the clean passing was making all the difference in the comeback effort.

On the other end of the pool Fresno Pacific was having trouble locating its shots, hitting posts and missing wide repeatedly to keep Biola riding high off its momentum as it sought to take the lead for the first time since 1-0.

"Early in the game we were missing passes, missing shots and we really needed to clean things up and really finish," said Nordell. "So, in the second half we started to make our passes and shots better. We also put more emphasis on shutting down Bodhi and our man-ups were much better."

That go-ahead goal finally came just inside the two-minute mark in the game as Maxwell Osborn had the ball at the four spot and lasered one all the way over to Wulf at the two. Wulf was one-on-one and elevated up over his FPU defender to snipe one home just over the head of the collapsing FPU keeper.

The goal gave Biola a glimpse at victory, which inspired the boys to grind defensively over the final 1:32 to continue to hold the higher-seeded opponents off the board. There was one final shot to defend as FPU took possession of the ball with just one second left on the clock.

They made an effort from half-pool, but a Biola field block cut it off before it got anywhere near Mitchell Carpenter. The win is Biola's third and most important of this inaugural season.

Wulf finished the goal as the game's leading individual scorer with four goals total. Matthew Vinson also added a multi-goal game to his resume with a pair of scores from center. Dominic Hidalgo-Valecillo, Luke Franklin, Nolan Rapp and John Grasso also got on the board for BU.

"I let the team know at halftime that the way we were going to win the game was in transition," said Nordell. "So we really put an emphasis on making stops defensively and then getting out as quickly as we could to put pressure on them. That really helped."

The Eagles were able to score on three of their five man-up chances in the final half. Additionally, they went 1-for-1 on penalty chances with Wulf's game-tying effort from the spot.

Aside from Wulf's scoring, though, the most important player throughout the day was Osborn. The LBC transfer earned four assists and was an imposing and calming presence throughout for Biola, bringing stability to the offense even throughout the tumultuous first half. He drew three exclusions, was credited with four steals and, remember, he was the one to earn the game-tying 5-meter effort.

The team continues in the WWPA bracket Friday afternoon and will get to play at least one game on Saturday.

Follow the 2 p.m. matchup against UC Davis at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT7vIjRJ8pU2PAQcIugwXEw.