The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's water polo team got its first taste of action at home this year and swept all five contests in convincing fashion at the seventh annual U of T Fall Classic. 
 
The team used home scheduling to allow it to play four of the five games against club and college teams outside the OUA.
 
"I thought the players responded well to each challenge they faced in the tournament," stated head coach Tuna Tali.  "It was a good preparation for the future having to respond to different types of teams from those we play in OUA action.  The team improved significantly from our first tournament against four NCAA universities even with the fact that our results in the first tournament were pretty good."
 
BLUES  14   CAMO  7
 
The Blues opened the tournament with a late-night match against the powerful CAMO men's club team from Montreal.  Knowing that the Montrealers had just finished a six-hour drive, the Blues went right to work on the counter-attack and leapt out to a 5-1 first quarter lead.  The team continued to focus on the defensive side of the ball and tacked on two more goals without surrendering any to lead 7-1 at the half.  The second half proved to be a lot closer but the Blues still held the advantage 12-5 after three periods.
 
New addition and transfer student Tony Giannatsis (Athens, Greece) led all scorers with five goals.  Freshman Bruno Marunica (Regina) notched a hat trick, while senior captain Stefan Mitic (Toronto) and freshman Patrick Conn (Piedmont, California) added a pair of goals each.  A pair of Ottawans, junior Harrison Young and freshman Diego Gonzalez rounded out the scoring with single tallies.
 
 
BLUES  16   Army  4
 
The United States Military Academy (West Point, N.Y.) was making its first ever visit to Toronto when it hit the pool to square off against the host Blues.  The teams began tentatively with Toronto able to nudge out in front  2-0 at the end of the first period.  The Blues again won a quarter by two goals to stretch the lead to 6-2 at the half.  Then the offensive power of the Blues attack struck for five unanswered goals in the third quarter to pull away to a 11-4 advantage entering the final frame.  Another 5-0 run led to the 12 goal winning margin.
 
Conn paced the Blues attack with four goals with Marunica contributing a hat trick.  Mitic, Young and Gonzalez each added a pair of markers,  while senior Marko Avdalovic (Toronto), sophomore Alex Geiger (Corona, California) and Giannatsis added singles.  Junior goaltender Andrei Velasevic (Toronto) split the netminding with freshman Minos Kotzambasis (Kitchener) and both goalies were solid in the victory.
 
 
BLUES  18   Capital Wave  10
 
The Blues second game of the second day came only two hours after the Army game finished and the team showed its fatigue quickly falling behind 4-1 to the older and more experienced club from Ottawa.  However, two late goals in the opening quarter drew the Blues to within one heading into second period action.  The team found its legs in the second going on a 5-0 run and edging out to a 9-6 halftime lead.  A 5-1 third quarter put the game away for the hosts.
 
Mitic notched his first four-goal game of the tournament to pace the attack.  Young, Giannatsis and Gonzalez all had hat tricks.  Conn popped in two goals while Geiger added a single.
 
 
BLUES  13   Chicago  6
 
The final day of competition opened with the Blues facing a tough club from Chicago.  At last year's Fall Classic, the Blues needed a last second goal to tie the visitors.  This year, the team wasted no time in jumping out to a 4-1 first quarter lead and adding one more to the advantage to go up 7-3 at the half.  The teams fought to a 2-2 draw in the third period before the Blues' superior conditioning shone through in the fourth quarter.
 
Conn and Gonzalez both pumped in four goals while Marunica notched his third hat trick of the tournament.  Gannatsis and Avdalovic rounded out the scoring with one goal apiece.  Velasevic and Kotzambasis were again solid in sharing the goaltending.
 
 
BLUES  20   Ottawa 5
 
The Blues only OUA action came against the Gee-Gees in the final game of the tournament for both teams.  The Blues made a statement bursting out to a commanding 7-0 first quarter bulge and adding three more before Ottawa found the back of the Blues' net.  A 12-1 halftime lead was lengthened to 15-2 after the third quarter as the superior conditioning of the Blues squad was on full display.
 
Marunica had a monster game scoring six times giving him 16 on the weekend.  A trio of Blues, Mitic, Giannatsis and Gonzalez netted hat tricks with Conn (also reaching the 16 goal mark for the tournament) and Avdalovic adding a pair each.  Kotzambasis came out of the net to score on a penalty shot to round out the scoring.
 
Next up, the Blues will travel to Montreal in two weeks to play two games against the National Team Training Center squad and one against last year's Canadian national champions - the powerful DDO club.