After a tough week of practice thoughts about winning and new team bonding through mohawks the Pepperdine men’s water polo team got what they earned— two sweeping victories in just one afternoon.
“The mohawk is awesome it really gave everyone a spark freshman centerback Danny White said. I think they will continue to inspire us for weeks to come.”
No. 5 Pepperdine played both No. 13 University of the Pacific and No. 10 Concordia on Saturday at the Raleigh-Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu.
“It feels good to get two wins in a row and hopefully it carries into the next two weekends said freshman goalkeeper Tommy O’Connell. Then it’s on to the MPSF tournament.”
In the morning the Waves defeated Pacific 12-6 and Concordia 14-11 in the afternoon.
“The UOP game was more important because it was a conference game O’Connell said. But the Concordia game helped us boost our momentum for next week.”
Two games might have seemed like a lot of water polo for one day but it didn’t seem to negatively affect the Waves.
“I got fired up by just realizing that two teams were coming in to our pool White said. We needed to defend our house and we did.”
Senior attacker JP MacDonell had the highest goal scoring stats scoring three goals against Pacific and six against Concordia. With 21 saves in the net O’Connell held the Waves’ solid defense.
In the first half of the Pacific game the Waves jumped ahead and scored eight goals to Pacific’s solo goal.
Senior center Clayton Snyder scored two goals in this match and all seven of his teammates each launched one into Pacific’s net. O’Connell had 10 saves for this first game.
“The entire team played to each other’s ability White said. We all tried to help each other be successful.”
It’s a good thing that Pepperdine had that lead because in the second half they were outscored by Pacific with five goals to four. But their strength and pride held strong till the buzzer sounded for the Waves’ first win of the day.
The second game was much rougher and physical. At half the Waves finally pulled ahead and the scoreboard read 6-4. Concordia was unable to catch up to Pepperdine in the second half because every time Concordia scored a goal the Waves quickly answered back with a ball in the net.
Junior attacker Andrew Milcovich and senior utility Brett Auer each scored two goals for Pepperdine.
The final score of Pepperdine’s second game of the day was 14-11.
Overall it was a strong day for the Waves who have a renewed sense of confidence.
“We knew that we had to win both games and that if we played to our ability we could handle both teams O’Connell said. Knowing that it was a must-win plus having our sweet mohawks fired us up.”
The Waves will travel to Irvine to battle the Anteaters on Nov. 15.