This post was written by Hatchet reporter Rob Bartnichak.

After dropping three straight games, men’s water polo rebounded with wins over Caltech and Occidental on Saturday at the Gary Troyer Tournament.

GW fell to Cal Baptist, Claremont Mudd Scripps and Whittier, but bounced back with a 17-4 win over Caltech and 10-7 win over Occidental. The two wins brought the Colonials to 2-3 for their California road trip, and 8-8 overall on the season.

“As a whole, the trip wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for, but we discovered some of the problems we’ve been having in the past few weeks,” head coach Scott Reed said.

Senior Ridvan Pehlivan paced the Colonials with 10 goals this weekend, while junior Bogdan Petkovic finished second on the team with seven.

Reed said the transition game and power play were two of the major challenges facing the team, which has lost seven of its last nine games.

“We’re losing some games because we’re not converting on those power play opportunities,” Reed said. “Everyone needs to get touches and we need to work on getting everyone involved.”

The Colonials surrendered double digits in goals in three of five games this weekend, but Reed said they achieved their team goal in finding more consistency.

GW returns to the Smith Center next weekend to face Johns Hopkins in the first of four straight conference games.