Hallie Mitchell
Staff Writer
A crowd of Wave supporters cheered on Saturday, as the No. 6-ranked Pepperdine’s men’s water polo team (8-3) defeated No. 4 Cal Berkley (6-3), with the final score at 7-5. In a game of lesser magnitude, the Waves also romped unranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (2-7) on Friday, 19-1.
“It was fantastic to see that many people at the match,” said freshman goalkeeper John Hahn. “The energy brought to the pool lifted all the guys on the team.”
At the start of the game, senior centerback Grant Miller and junior center Clayton Snyder both led the Waves with two goals each.
“We made a goal as a team to make the first goals of every quarter,” Snyder said.
Within two minutes of each other, Synder and senior attacker Adam Hewko both scored, giving Pepperdine a 2-0 lead. Soon after, the Golden Bears sank a goal, 2-1.
On a 6-on-4 play, the Waves had a strong defensive effort. Hahn had a total of 16 saves throughout the match, which Kocur said “sparked the energy and drive to step it up on offense.”
The first quarter ended 2-2, with Cal scoring another on a 6-on-5 opportunity.
In the second quarter, Miller took advantage of a Golden Bear ejection to give the Waves a one-point lead. Twenty-six seconds later, junior attacker J.P MacDonell added another goal, bringing the score to 4-2. The offensive continued with a third goal by junior attacker Taylor Watson. With two minutes left in the half, Cal scored a goal, cutting the Waves’ lead to two, at 5-3.
Both teams played the third quarter with strong defensive efforts. On another power play, Miller scored an additional goal for Pepperdine. The Golden Bears responded with a goal on a 6-on-5 opportunity. With only four seconds remaining, Snyder tossed in the final goal of the quarter.
Both defenses played strong throughout the last quarter, and all scoring was held off until the final second of the period, when Cal shot the last goal of the match. But, it was too little too late, as the Waves held on for the 7-5 victory.
“Defense was a massive factor,”Hahn said. “We have been putting together a consistent good four quarters.”
In Friday’s game against Claremont-Mudd, the winner was never in doubt from start to finish. Sophomore attacker Blake Hubbell scored four goals in the blowout to start off the weekend action, which gave Pepperdine momentum going into its match against Cal.
Next up for the Waves is a home match vs Harvard at 2 pm on Friday, Oct 3 at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool.
10-02-2008