No. 13 Pepperdine Men’s Water Polo went 4-0 to start their season at the Triton Invite in San Diego on Sept. 7-8.
The Waves started off the invite with a commanding 21-9 victory over Pomona-Pitzer. The first point of the game and season for Pepperdine was scored by junior attacker Adam Csapo, who was named to the WCC Preseason Team for the second year in a row.
After each team held a 1-1 tie through the first three minutes of the match, Pepperdine scored four unanswered goals to take a 5-1 lead. Later on in the match, the Waves tightened up on defense as they allowed no goals in the third quarter and just two in the fourth. The Waves kept piling on and started off their season with a victory.
Pepperdine’s second game of the season was a blowout 23-5 victory over Westcliff. The match started close with Pepperdine leading 3-1 after the first quarter, but from there the Waves took off scoring seven unanswered points and then scoring eight unanswered points later on.
The leading scorers for the Waves were redshirt freshman center Bronson Birdsall with five points, followed by sophomore center Chase Wilson, and fifth year attackers Christian Hosea and Anthony D’Ambra each with four points.
On the second day of the invite, the Waves squared off against No. 2 Cal Berkeley, who has won the past three national championships, according to Cal Berkeley Athletics. Pepperdine faced off against Cal Berkeley in the previous season, but fell to them in double overtime.
After Pepperdine scored the first point of the match, Cal Berkeley scored four unanswered points to take a 4-1 lead with 3:39 left in the first quarter. The Waves didn’t back down though as back-to-back goals by Hosea and a goal from freshman attacker Erik Ionescu tied things up. Both teams scored once more to enter the second quarter 5-5.
Once again, Pepperdine scored the first point of the second quarter, but Cal Berkeley scored three unanswered points and four total in the quarter. Csapo and Hosea each scored a goal to keep the Waves within one heading into half time.
In the third quarter, it was the Waves who came out of half time firing, going on a 4-1 run to start the quarter, with help from Ionescu’s two goals. Cal Berkeley would score two more times, but sophomore utility Jon Carcarey scored two goals in the final 1:02 left on the clock to give the Waves a one point lead heading into the final quarter.
Carcarey and Ionescu started off the fourth quarter with goals for Pepperdine, but Cal Berkeley responded with three straight goals to tie the match up. Wilson scored for Pepperdine, but Cal Berkeley junior attacker Marci Szatmary scored back to back goals to retake the lead. With 1:16 on the clock, Hosea scored a goal to tie the score 18-18. Neither team scored for the rest of the quarter, sending the match into overtime.
Cal Berkeley started off the scoring in OT, but Carcarey scored another goal to even things up again. Cal Berkeley senior attacker Roberto Valera scored his second OT goal, once again giving them the lead. Pepperdine once again showed their resilience as senior attacker Dane Howell scored with 0:39 left on the clock to tie things up once again and eventually send the game to a sudden death period.
Carcarey came through clutch again the, scoring his sixth goal of the match and securing the victory for the Waves.
Pepperdine finished off the tournament with another blowout win, this time a 23-7 victory over Fullerton. The Waves jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first 3:09 and ended the first quarter 7-4. As the match went along, the defense tightened up while the offense kept scoring to secure an undefeated Triton Invite.
The leading scorers were Csapo, Carcarey and senior attacker Clay Kaneko with six, three and three goals, respectively.
This is the second year in a row the Waves have started off their season 4-0. Their next match is Sept. 14 against LMU at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool.
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Contact Tony Gleason on Twitter (@tony__gleason) or via email: anthony.gleason@pepperdine.edu
