Rally falls short against No. 10 Concordia

ORANGE, Calif. - Down by as many as five goals to No. 10 Concordia University in the first quarter, the Chapman University men's water polo team rallied to within one, only to come up short 15-11 on Friday afternoon at the Allred Aquatics Center.

Concordia (22-3) built a 5-0 lead with 2:30 remaining in the first quarter, two of which came from junior 2M Milos Skaljac who had seven goals in the game. Senior Alex Mulé got Chapman (12-11) its first goal of the game 30 seconds later off of an assist from senior 2M Austin McElvaney.

The second quarter started with Concordia scoring consecutive goals by Skaljac and sophomore driver Caleb Hamilton to build its lead to 7-1. With Concordia seemingly in control, Chapman scored four of the next five goals to inch within three, 8-5 at halftime. McElvaney scored two of Chapman's goals during that run. Mulé and sophomore utility Pierre Masson also added goals. Two of the Panthers' goals during its 4-1 run were assisted by junior utility Dominic Tornambe who had a team-high four assists along with one goal for the game.

Less than two minutes into the second half, the Eagles' sophomore driver Duje Grubisic scored pushing the lead to 9-5. Chapman then ran off three-consecutive goals, two by Mulé and one by McElvaney, narrowing the Concordia lead to 9-8. Unfortunately that would be as close as the Panthers could get as Concordia took control of the game in the fourth quarter building its lead back to five before eventually winning 15-11.

The loss was the Panthers' second straight - both against top-10 teams in the nation. Prior to that, Chapman had won nine out of 10.

Box score: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/mwaterpolo/2009-10/stats/Concordia-CU.pdf