For the second year in a row, UCLA men’s water polo alumni dominated the stat lines in the USA Water Polo National League championship game.
2016 scoring leader Patrick Fellner and Paul Reynolds, the fourth-most scoring Bruin in program history, suited up for the Olympic Club against the reigning champion, the New York Athletic Club.
NYAC sported four 2016 Rio Olympians, including UCLA alumnus Josh Samuels and veteran goalie Merrill Moses. Its lineup also included UCLA alumni Griffin White, Chris Wendt and Chancellor Ramirez, who led all scorers in Sunday’s matchup with four goals. NYAC won 11-9 and claimed its second consecutive National League crown.
The Olympic Club entered the weekend with an undefeated 6-0 record and scored first in the title game, but Ramirez posted two goals in less than three minutes, his second of which was a cross-pool catch-and-shoot off a counterattack, giving NYAC a 2-1 lead.
At the end of the first, Reynolds converted a penalty shot with 17 seconds left to tie the game up at three, but the Olympic Club wouldn’t get even again for another two quarters.
Samuels took care of nearly everything for the NYAC in the second quarter. He scored two goals, both bar-ins off the left post against California goalie Lazar Andric, and registered two steals in the last minute to preserve a two-goal halftime lead.
By the end of the game, Samuels had a game-high five steals, four more than any other player in the water on either team.
Reynolds broke free on a counterattack with under three minutes to go in the third quarter, and with Ramirez gunning for him, converted to tie the game at six apiece. The next possession NYAC would take the lead, and wouldn’t relinquish it for the rest of the game.
Ramirez scored his fourth goal of the game to open up action in the fourth quarter, and three saves from Moses sealed the victory.
After the conclusion of the game, Samuels was named the 2017 National League Most Valuable Player, and Reynolds, who finished 2-for-6 in the championship game, was honored for being the top scorer, having scored the most goals throughout the season at 26.
In the third-place game, rising redshirt seniors utility Alex Roelse and attacker Max Irving each had one goal as USA University topped Alumni 8-6.
Irving finished the season with more steals than any other player with 23, despite Samuels’ five in the last game.
In the fifth-place game, incoming freshman Quinten Osborne tied for a team-high two goals on USA Junior as it beat 2017 Peter J. Cutino Award candidate Ryder Roberts’ Los Angeles Athletic Club, despite Roberts’ game-high three goals.
Both NYAC and Olympic Club, thanks to their top finishes, are automatically entered into the Men’s Senior National Championship, which will take place later this summer, per USA Water Polo.