Air Force Men's Water Polo Goes 2-1 To Open Play at Bruno Classic

Air Force men's water polo opened the 2022 season with three matches at the Bruno Classic, hosted by Brown University at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in Providence, R.I. The Falcons opened with a 20-5 win over Gannon University, then fell 15-13 to #20 St. Francis Brooklyn, before a 15-4 win over Austin College to cap the day.

In the 20-5 win over Gannon, 10 different Falcons got into the goals column. Freshman Jackson Carter led the team with five goals in his collegiate debut. Senior Grant Snyder scored four goals and freshman Bruce Kim added three. Senior AJ Kuypers recorded nine saves in goal.

Against St. Francis, the Falcons were unable to rally back in the 15-13 setback. Trailing by four, Air Force out-scored St. Francis 5-3 in the fourth quarter, but could not overtake the Terriers. Sophomore Jacob Yi scored four goals to lead the Falcons. Carter and Snyder added two goals each.

In the nightcap against Austin, the Falcons built a 11-3 lead after two quarters of play and rolled to the win. The defense held Austin to just one goal over the final three quarters of play, after allowing three goals in the first. Snyder led the way on offense, tallying six goals. Freshman Jake Dixon followed with three goals.

"Overall, the day was a success," head coach Ryan Brown said. "The team came ready to play each game with intensity. All of our opponents were well balanced and played great. We had strong contributions from seasoned players as well as our newcomers. They have been learning under fire on the road. We made played well against St. Francis, but were unable to recover from some small errors early on."

The Falcons were not the only program competing at Brown, as the Air Force women's volleyball team also competed in Providence. The team attended the Air Force volleyball game Friday night in a 3-2 win over Siena.

"We were able to watch the volleyball team play last night and got to witness a spirited comeback against Sienna," Brown said. "They went on to win the tournament by going 3-0 over the weekend and we are going to pull some inspiration from them in our remaining games against some tough opponents Sunday in Wagner, Brown and MIT."

The Falcons return to action Sunday, Sept. 4, in day two action at the Bruno Classic. The Falcons take on Wagner at 10:45 am ET and #19 Brown at 2:30 pm ET in Providence. The third game of the day will be at MIT at 7:30 pm ET.

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