Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
Providence, R.I. – The #6 Pacific men's water polo team opened the 2023 season with a pair of dominant wins in the Bruno Classic, hosted at Brown. Pacific (2-0) bested Mount St. Mary's, 21-7, in an afternoon event local time and then topped Mercyhurst, 24-3, in the last game of the day at Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.

"I thought our energy and our urgency were really good today," said head coach James Graham. "I wanted us to come out of the gates to set the tempo. We wanted to play each game like it was a championship contest. I thought we did that."
 
In the opening matchup with Mount St. Mary's (1-1), Pacific blitzed The Mount by a 9-1 count in the first period. Mount St. Mary's did outscore Pacific in the second quarter, 3-2, but the Tigers dominated the second half, 10-3.
 
All-American Aleksa Šišakovic the senior transfer from St. Francis Brooklyn, which discontinued its athletics program after last season, played well in his return to the East Coast. He scored four goals in his Pacific debut, including three in the first quarter, helping Pacific to the early lead. Pacific scored five goals before The Mount got on the board.  
 
Juniors Gil Gvishi and Declan McJilton each scored three goals and classmates Ran Souva and Daniel Viscia each added two goals. Fifth-year senior Rene Peralta, sophomore Charlie Donlin and freshman Spencer Burdack also added two tallies as eight Tigers had multiple-goal games.
 
In the second contest, Pacific scored the first nine goals of the contest on the way to the 24-3 win. It was the most goals scored in a game since the Tigers scored 24 against Brown on September 3, 2017 in the same event. In that year, Pacific scored 45 goals on the first day of the tournament (September 2). This year, the Tigers also tallied 45 goals.
 
Šišakovic scored six goals to pace the Tigers for the second game. Souva and junior Filip Norell had four goals each. Peralta added three, while Burdack and graduate student Stefan Vavic scored two each.
 
The Tigers will continue the event Sunday with a 6 a.m. PT match against Iona (1-1) followed by an 11:30 a.m. matchup with Bucknell (1-1). Pacific will face the host Brown Bears (1-1) at 7 a.m. PT on Monday before returning to Stockton.