Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- The Biola Men's Water Polo team made history on Saturday morning competing in their first contest ever. Head Coach Rick Nordell's Eagles launched the program with the two-day Triton Invitational on the campus of UCSD. Biola jumped in with both feet as the Eagles faced off against 12-time national champions the UCLA Bruins in game one, resulting in a 21-2 loss.

Biola (0-1) endured perhaps the toughest-scheduled program debut as the Eagles went head-to-head against the No. 1 Bruins (1-0), the reigning back-to-back national champions. In the 2020-21 season, No. 3 UCLA defeated No. 4 USC for its 12th national championship in program history. 

While the game counts as a loss for the Eagles, first-year Head Coach Rick Nordell was proud of how his team competed in the pool.

"This was a really big opportunity for us," said Nordell. "Not many teams get to face off against the best team in the country, let alone for the first game in program history."

Nordell and his team were focused on the small victories today.

"Our number one goal was to get the first stop, we didn't want them scoring on us in the opening drive," commented Nordell. "Not only did we accomplish that goal, but we stopped No.1 UCLA on their first two possessions of the game."

UCLA opened the scoring early in the game, but the Eagles were quick to respond as Dominic Hidalgo-Valecillo scored the first goal in program history at the 6:15 mark of the first quarter. 

The Eagles held their own for the first quarter of the game down 5-1 before the No. 1 ranked Bruins got locked in. Following the goal from Hidalgo-Valecillo, UCLA went on to score 15 unanswered goals to build a 20-1 lead. The Bruins were mostly without their 2020-21 Peter J. Cutino Award winner, Nicolas Saveljic but still managed to get the job done. 

Defensively, UCLA stood strong limiting the Eagles to just one goal in each half. The Bruins relied on their speed and size to force a lot of Biola turnovers, and they took advantage of them with some fast break scores.

Biola showed some fight in the final quarter against the Bruins, as Luke Franklin scored the Eagle's second goal of the game. Franklin found the back of the net 45 seconds into the fourth quarter on an assist from Braeden Marsolini. The shot came from the right post at just outside the two meter and was deflected off a field block into the cage.

Biola returns to action at 4 p.m. as the Eagles take on Westcliff for their second game of the season. Live stats can be found at athletics.biola.edu.