No. 3 Waves destroy Pacific 16-2 before losing a critical, one-goal match to No. 1 Cal Berkeley, 8-7.
By Erica Sigman
Staff Writer
After taking third in the Northern California tournament, completing a three-game winning streak at home, and getting Head Coach Terry Schroeder his 300th career win at Pepperdine, the men’s water polo team fell short to No. 1-ranked Cal Berkeley Sunday 8-7.
This weekend presented the Waves with two opposite ends of the spectrum in water polo. Pepperdine opened the weekend on Saturday afternoon at home by easily defeating No. 16-ranked University of Pacific 16-2. The win gave many of the players the opportunity to step up but it also gave Head Coach Terry Schroeder his impressive 300th win with the Waves.
Overall, this weekend proved not to be just a walk in the park for the Waves. Pepperdine hosted No. 1-ranked Cal Sunday, and suffered a heart-breaking loss. The defeat brings Pepperdine to an overall record of 12-3 and 1-1 in conference play.
The team traveled to Stanford’s Avery Aquatics Center Friday, Oct. 3, to compete in the 2003 tournament. The Waves celebrated a hard fought contest to gain the third place spot in the tournament after upsetting the No.1-ranked USC Trojans Sunday.
Two weekends ago, the Waves hosted No. 9-ranked UC Irvine, defeating it 11-6 Saturday afternoon and kept the momentum for the weekend by defeating UC San Diego 9-4 Sunday afternoon.
Last weekend was one of intense emotions for the Pepperdine water polo players and staff.
Nine different players were able to score for the Waves in the Saturday game against Pacific, with junior Jesse Smith and senior two-meter man Michael Hausmann leading the way with three goals each.
At the end of the first quarter of play, Pepperdine was up 6-0, and did not allow Pacific to get on the scoreboard until the last quarter.
While Saturday brought a lot of positive emotions for the Waves, Sunday took a turn for the worst.
Pepperdine experienced a humbling loss to Cal 8-7. Even though they have defeated Cal earlier in the season, the Waves understand that the Bears are nationally ranked No. 1 for a good reason.
Pepperdine got off to a slow start in the first quarter and let Cal take advantage. At the close of the first half, Cal was ahead 5-2.
“I think that they did a few things on offense that we didn’t adjust to very well,” Schroeder said. “We just missed some shots early on that gave us a slow start. We gave them too good of lead.”
However, Cal’s early lead did not discourage the Waves. The second half of play was a hard fought half by both teams, but more so by Pepperdine.
Pepperdine cut the Bear’s lead to 7-5 at the end of the third quarter and came within one goal towards the end. Despite having a lot of huge opportunities on offense, the Waves just could not get the ball in the cage.
The Waves were starting to show signs of frustration with every missed shot. In the middle of the fourth quarter, after scoring one of his three goals, Smith was majored from the game for taunting.
Smith led the attack, once again, with three goals for the Waves and junior goalkeeper Ben Tait displayed his impressive skills as a goalie, blocking 11 of the Bear’s shots.
Although, the Waves were strong defensively, offensively, this was not the same Pepperdine team.
In the NorCal tournament, two weekends ago, Saturday proved to be a less stressful day than Sunday, providing for a solid start to a tough weekend.
The No. 3-ranked Waves opened the weekend by defeating No. 20 UC Davis 11-4 and No. 6 Cal State Long Beach State 11-9 Saturday, October 4.
The Waves first met up against UC Davis with freshman driver Garrit Barth and Hausmann both leading the team with two goals each. Overall, eight of Pepperdine’s players were able to contribute to the final score.
After easily defeating the Aggies, Pepperdine had to meet up with Long Beach later that afternoon who proved to be tougher competition.
Hausmann, junior driver Acosta and Smith contributed three goals a piece to add to the final score. By allowing three of Pepperdine’s strongest shooters to step up, there was no way Long Beach stood a chance.
After two uncontested wins, Pepperdine had to face No. 2-ranked Stanford in the semifinal game Sunday where they suffered an emotional 10-9 loss.
The Waves outscored the Cardinals the first three quarters and went into the fourth quarter leading 8-3. At the start of the fourth quarter, Stanford came out strong, scoring four unanswered goals cutting Pepperdine’s lead to one goal.
The players were emotional and frustrated when asked to comment on the last minutes of the game.
“The last quarter was a really weird quarter,” Barth said. “It was a long quarter and we made a lot of stupid mistakes. We just lost control of the ball.”
While the Waves came out strong in the first three quarters of the game, their defense seemed to step down in the last and most crucial quarter allowing the Cardinal to score seven goals in the fourth alone.
“We did a really poor job of clock management and using our clock wisely,” Schroeder said. “It lead to a lot of turnovers. We gave them too many chances. The game offered a lot of learning experiences”
Junior goalkeeper Ben Tait had another idea.
“I think we got a little complacent,” Tait said. “We played like we had the game won.”
Despite the heartbreak of the loss, the Waves try to look on the bright side and look at that game as a learning experience.
“I think it’s a positive thing,” Tait said. “We know that next time we have to be ready to play all four quarters.”
Though it would seem as if the loss to Stanford would put a damper on the whole tournament, Pepperdine stepped up and devastated top-ranked USC 9-7 in the third place game Sunday afternoon.
Because of the Waves’ unstoppable defense, with junior goalkeeper Ben Tait rejecting 13 of the Trojan’s shots, Pepperdine was able to finally defeat USC.
“I think that, especially against USC, after coming off a hard loss the guys showed a lot of heart and good team energy to come back a beat them,” Schroeder said.
The players prove Schroeder right.
“We just came out hungry from the Stanford game,” Barth said. “We didn’t want to go home with an upset.”
After closing yet another weekend at third place, the Waves come back home Oct. 11 to defeat UCI and UC San Diego.
Pepperdine opened the weekend defeating the Anteaters 11-6, outscoring them in every quarter of play except the second.
At the close of the weekend, Pepperdine went up against UCSD, adding another win to their record, beating them 9-4.
The Waves played outstanding defense, only allowing UCSD to score once a quarter. Tait is credited with an incredible 13 saves.
After falling to the nation’s best this weekend, Pepperdine is taking this week to prepare to face another top-four team.
This Saturday the Waves travel to the University of Southern California to take on the Trojans at 9:15 a.m.
The Waves will return to Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool Sunday to take on UC Santa Barbara at noon.
The UCSB game will be one of the last home games for the Waves this season, and the coaching staff hopes for turnouts like this last weekend.
“I think the crowd this weekend was really great,” Schroeder said. “I just hope to get more support like that in our next few home games.”
October 23, 2003