In their first contest, the Sagehens (5-3 NCAA, 5-4 overall) figured to rout Chapman University, as had been the custom in years past. Saturday’s game, however, proved to be a different story as the Sagehens went on to lose to a weaker foe, 6-3. To Chapman’s credit, they did manage to beat perennial SCIAC conference power La Verne two weeks ago.

Grayson Schaffer This Sagehen, on the attack, is trying to rifle the small, yellow ball into the large net at the end of the pool.

Pomona-Pitzer’s second and final match of the weekend, against the NAIA Division-I Cal Baptist Lancers went much worse. A heroic goal from David Ratner ’01 was all the Sagehens managed to tally in an 11-1 defeat. Fortunately for Pomona-Pitzer, the loss to the Lancers will not count toward their NCAA record, since Cal Baptist is not an NCAA school. Afterward, several Hens questioned the ethics of the NAIA Lancers physical play.

"[Cal Baptist is in] Division I, sure, but that doesn’t give them the right to be a bunch of dirty [testicle] grabbers," said Dusty Baker ’01.

"They’re definitely [testicle] grabbers," added Ratner, echoing Baker’s criticism of Cal Baptist’s underwater defensive tactics.

To say the least, Saturday was a discouraging day for the men’s water polo team. Things are looking up, however. Their 12-9 victory over NCAA Division-II UC Santa Cruz two weeks ago punctuated a tremendous early-season effort. Strong contributions from Marc Cavagnolo ’01 and Ryan Williams ’01, as well as steady leadership from Anuj Datta ’00 have sparked the Sagehens inspired play thus far.

Pomona-Pitzer’s recent mini-skid is can be attributed at least in part to the absence of first-year phenom Ben Speicher ’03, one of the few freshman hole-guards this year in all of SCIAC. During the week leading up to the confrontation against UC Santa Cruz, Speicher suffered a freak injury when he was accidentally struck by a teammate in an afternoon practice. He is set to return for the Hens’ next contest.

This weekend, the Sagehens will be travelling to Northern California to compete in the Slugfest, to be held at the home of the UCSC Banana Slugs. During this invitational, Pomona-Pitzer is slated to do battle with UCSC, UC San Diego, UC Davis, and Santa Clara University. These contests look will show the Hensjust how good they are, letting them know whether they will be able to compete with the Nation’s best water polo teams.

"This will give us a chance to show what we can do as a team," said Ratner.

"We’re a different group of guys now. We’ve got some first-years filling important roles, and we even have veteran players like myself being thrust into more demanding roles. But we’re still up to it, and so far I think our play proves it."