Men’s Water Polo
GARRETT WAIT
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine men’s water polo team split its two matches over the weekend despite solid play on offense in the two games. The 11th-ranked Waves lost to No. 5 University of California, Berkeley 10-8 Saturday but won Sunday’s match against No. 15 University of the Pacific 7-5.
Freshmen Grant Miller and Adam Hewko combined to score 11 goals for the Waves over the weekend, including seven of the eight goals against Cal. Miller scored four against the Golden Bears while Hewko chipped in three goals of his own.
“I definitely thought I’d have some sort of an impact coming in,” Miller said. “There’s so many freshmen on this team, we just knew we had to step up.”
Pepperdine led 4-3 after the first period of the game against Cal thanks to three goals by Miller and one by Hewko. However, the momentum swung back to Cal in the second period as the Bears took the lead and never looked back.
Pepperdine stretched their lead to 5-3 early in the second period on another Hewko goal, but three unanswered Cal goals meant the Waves had to crawl out of a 6-5 deficit after halftime.
In the third period, Cal struck first to give the Bears a two-goal advantage, but it was quickly answered by the Waves on Hewko’s third goal of the afternoon, making the score 7-6. However, two more Cal goals brought the score to 9-6 at the end of the third period.
The fourth period brought yet another Cal goal to give the Bears the biggest lead of the match at 10-6. Miller completed his day with a late goal and sophomore Doug Mann tacked on another Pepperdine goal to finish the scoring.
The match was all about players scoring in bunches for the two teams. Miller and Hewko had good days, but were eclipsed by Cal’s Andrija Vasiljevic who scored five goals for the Bears.
The offense certainly outshined the defense in the match, but Pepperdine freshman goalie Robbie Miller was still able to make seven saves in the game, two more than his counterpart in the pool.
Sunday, the Waves took on another Mountain Pacific Sports Federation foe, the University of the Pacific Tigers in Stockton, Calif. The Waves were able to beat their opponent thanks in large part to the play of Miller and Hewko.
The first period was fairly uneventful as Pepperdine and Pacific each scored one goal in a tough, defensive first stanza. The two teams came out in the second period looking to light up the scoreboard.
The Waves scored three goals in the period to counter the Tigers’ two goals and give the Waves a 4-3 advantage entering halftime.
Pepperdine came out strong in the second half, looking to put away the Tigers for good. They scored twice in the third without allowing a single Pacific shot to find the back of the net, building a solid 6-3 lead heading into the fourth period.
The Waves were able to hang on to the ball and the lead through the fourth quarter, scoring another goal in the period while allowing two to Pacific, making the final score 7-5.
Pepperdine redshirt sophomore Mike Lee played in the net against Pacific, stopping six shots while Pacific goalie Marko Popovic had nine saves.
After the weekend, Pepperdine had a record of 10-11 overall and 2-4 in MPSF play. The Waves are in a tie for fifth place with Cal.
Pepperdine plays defending national champion University of Southern California at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool at Pepperdine in a MPSF match next Saturday. The Trojans are in a tie for second place in the league.
In the Waves’ last match against USC on Sept. 12, the Trojans beat Pepperdine 10-4. The match was the Waves’ third of the year and was held at the USC pool, a hostile environment for any visiting team. However, Miller says the team has been focused on beating USC this time.
“We pretty much have just taken a look at how they run things,” Miller said. “We’ve got some plays set and worked hard on our defense.”
Pepperdine and USC also scrimmaged each other at the Wasko Tournament at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in the first week of the season.
The Waves have lost five of their last six matches of the season and senior All-American Josh Acosta hasn’t contributed a goal for the Waves in any of those six matches. The game against Pacific marked the first time all year Pepperdine was able to win without a goal by Acosta.
11-04-2004
