Offense Ignites in Season Opening Win

Saturday, September 4

Irvine, Calif.

10:00 AM

UC Irvine

Chapman

Offense Ignites in Season Opening Win

September 04, 2021 | Men's Water Polo

By: Sarah Zetlmeisl

IRVINE, Calif. – No. 13 UC Irvine men's water polo opened its 2021 season with a 23-8 victory over Chapman, Saturday morning at Anteater Aquatics Complex.

UCI improves to 1-0 on the season while Chapman falls to 0-1 to start the year.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
> Grant Chiponis led the way scoring a career-high five goals while freshman Dylan Patist made his Anteater debut behind a four goal performance
> Zlatan Nikocevic and Casey Lynton each added three goals while Lynton dished out three assists for a team-high six points
> Freshman Stewart Campbell finished with two goals in his debut while Kiyan Mohebbizadeh, Tyler Padua, Carson Arnett, Michael Swieca, Archer Sauer and Thomas Cass had one apiece. It was the first career goals for Padua, Archer and Cass
> Defensively, Nikocevic, Lynton and Cass each had three steals
> In goal, Harrison Land played three quarters, finishing with four saves and a .400 save percentage. He also added an assist and steal
> Jacob Pyle played his first game for the 'Eaters and had two saves on the day
> UCI shot 62.2 percent and went 4-of-8 on powerplays

Quarter One
> The teams exchanged goals to start before the 'Eaters went on a 4-0 scoring run to go up, 5-1
> Chiponis scored first (7:17) before Patist added one at 6:28
> Nikocevic fired in back-to-back goals followed by Patist's second of the day at 1:03

Quarter Two
> The Panthers would score at 7:40
> Lynton fired in a goal at 6:28 on a powerplay followed by Sauer at 4:18
> Patist scored his third at 2:39 while Mohebbizadeh found the back of the net at 1:19 to make it 9-2 at the half

Quarter Three
> UCI continued its scoring attack with a goal from Nikocevic at 7:15
> Chapman would score before UCI went on a 3-0 run
> The teams exchanged goals as the Anteaters led 14-6 with 1:59 remaining
> Lynton and Patist each found the back of the net in the final two minutes as UCI took a 16-6 lead into the final frame

Quarter Four
> The Panthers scored early (7:42) before Chiponis fired in two-straight followed by goals from Arnett and Campbell
> Chiponis and Campbell continued with their stellar quarter as Chiponis found the back twice, at 2:55 and with 18 seconds remaining while Campbell fired in a second goal at 1:31

UP NEXT
> UCI will play its second game of the day at 3:30 p.m. against Redlands at Anteater Aquatics Complex