Playing without bench players due to injuries and illness, the Grand Canyon University Men's Water Polo team fought off that adversity to post a thrilling 12-11 triple-overtime victory over the 'B' squad for San Diego State University Sunday morning in San Diego, California. The win was the highlight of a topsy-turvy weekend that saw the Lopes lose their first match of the weekend, 9-5, over UC-San Diego's 'B' team Saturday; see their second match against UCSD 'A' get postponed due to injuries for both squads; and forfeit their final match against SDSU 'A' due to the same injury bug. The weekend left the Lopes with a 2-3 overall mark with one weekend of matches left before they begin Arizona College Series play in two weeks.
 
Few who saw the start of Sunday's match would've predicted that the teams would need extra periods to decide it, since the Lopes came out firing from the opening buzzer. The combination of Beau Merritt and Christian Walters proved a powerful offensive duo in the first period against the Aztecs, combining for five goals to pace the Lopes to a 5-1 lead. Walters scored again midway through the second quarter to up the Lopes' lead to 6-2, but the lack of depth on the Lopes' side helped the Aztecs' offense awaken and cut the GCU lead to 7-6 by the end of three quarters.
 
From there, it was a nip-and-tuck battle, with five ties, and neither team holding a lead larger than a goal. Merritt's goal with 1:36 left in regulation helped send the game to extras tied at 9-9. Merritt gave the Lopes the lead early in the first overtime, then scored a goal with less than a minute left in the second of the two required overtime periods to send it to sudden death, and finally produced the gamewinner two minutes later. The final goal was Merritt's seventh of the day – a season-high – while Walters added four goals to pace the Lopes.
 
The Lopes will head back to San Diego this coming weekend to not only make up the postponed UCSD match but also face off against UC-Irvine and Arizona State University October 15 and 16.