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The Official Athletic Site of the Biola University Eagles

Scoreboard

Matthew Rodriguez passing
Samantha Rainey
11
Winner Biola BU (15-17, 1-7 WWPA)
5
Concordia CUI (5-23, 2-6 WWPA)
Winner
Biola BU
(15-17, 1-7 WWPA)
11
Final
5
Concordia CUI
(5-23, 2-6 WWPA)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Biola BU 0 5 2 4 11
Concordia CUI 1 1 0 3 5

Game Recap: Men's Water Polo |

Never A Doubt

Biola crushes its rival Concordia on the final day of the season with a big tournament win.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Following a pair of excruciatingly close losses to Concordia during the regular season, Biola Men's Water Polo left not a shred of opportunity to the Golden Eagles during the teams' playoff matchup on Saturday.

Head Coach Rick Nordell's team used a massive second period to establish itself as the better team in this game and would go on to cruise to a fulfilling 11-5 victory in their final match of the 2022 season.

The Eagles' 11 goals in the one is the most scored by any team in any of the three matchups between the two sides this season. CUI won the first meeting in overtime by a 10-9 tally and beat Biola at home 10-8 a few weeks ago.

This time, though, Biola was committed to making a statement and picking up a big win when it mattered the most, and the No. 8 seed Eagles did just that in handing the No. 7 seed Concordia its second loss at the 2022 WWPA Championships.

Things began relatively slowly in this one as neither team found the twine until CUI scored first six minutes and five seconds into the first period. Biola did not score at all in the first period, going to the first switch facing a 1-0 deficit.

The pace changed quickly in the second frame though as Nordell's team scored four in a row and five goals total in the second period to stake a commanding 5-2 lead at halftime.

Luke Franklin was busy once again as he scored the game-tying and go-ahead goal with back-to-back tallies at 7:05 and 6:01 in the second.

Gavin Oliver scored a dandy from distance and then Kenny Wulf added on to complete Biola's run of back-to-back-to-back-to-back goals.

It was the first of two stretches of four-straight for Biola, broken up only by Connor McElwee's goal with 1:13 left in the second period.

Wulf, Matthew Rodriguez and Dominic Hidalgo-Valecillo each scored coming out of the halftime break to hand Biola an 8-2 lead with just seven minutes left in the match.

CUI showed some late signs of life as they managed three fourth-quarter goals, but it was too little, too late following their scoreless third period.

Biola's goalkeepers combined for 17 saves in this one to hold Concordia to just a .167 shooting percentage (5-for-30). On the flip side, the CUI keepers were not effective at all as they managed just five saves total and BU converted on about 50 percent of its total shot attempts.

Kenny Wulf led the way with five points in his final match as a Biola Eagle. He scored three times and added two assists to lift his team to its 15th win of the season. All three Biola seniors had at least one point in their last game as Matt Vinson added a goal and Jonas Huckabay had one assist.

Nolan Rapp was the leading facilitator with one goal and three assists. The offense was also aided by a great all-around effort from Hidalgo-Valecillo who had three steals to go along with one magnificent direct shot goal. 

The playoff win gives Biola at least one WWPA Championship victory in each of its first two years of competition. The 2022 season was one of tremendous progress for coach Nordell and these Eagles as they finished 15-17 overall (19-17 if you throw in exhibition wins).

The team also ends its year just -4 in total goals vs. the goals it allowed. This year's margin is 343 scored and 347 allowed. That represents an improvement of 202 goals as the team was -206 to its opponents just one year ago (171-377).

Maxwell Osborn finishes this season as the team's leader in goals (56) and he scored on over 60 percent of his shot attempts. Nolan Rapp was the Eagles' leader in points with a huge offensive season. He had 45 goals and 48 assists to end the year with 93 total points. For his efforts at the tournament, Luke Franklin was named to the All-Tournament second team.

Biola will progress from here to a spring developmental season and then be back next fall to compete in a WWPA conference with a dramatically different makeup of teams.
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