The top two teams of the WCC faced off at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Nov. 3. The No. 9 Pepperdine Waves hosted the No. 15 California Baptist Lancers for a highly contested game between two undefeated powerhouses.
Pepperdine came away with a gritty 17-16 win over CBU to improve to 4-0 in the WCC and 19-6 on the year. Cal Baptist is now 3-1 in the WCC with a 19-10 record overall.
“[This was a] huge conference win,” Head Coach Merrill Moses said. “I told the guys that it was going to be a hard one. CBU’s playing at a very high level right now, and they’re a team that never quits.”
The home team was looking to get a big win against the Lancers, especially after losing to them in last year’s conference semifinals. This loss was still fresh in the minds of the Waves.
“It’s always a revenge game after that loss here,” junior attacker Adam Csapo said. “But coming in, we obviously changed our things compared to last year. It’s a new team.”
The younger Waves were the stars of the game, boasting this new team mindset. Freshman attacker Erik Ionescu had five goals, two assists and one steal on the day. Redshirt freshman center Bronson Birdsall had two goals of his own, along with one assist and one steal.
Another young power player for the Waves was sophomore utility Jon Carcarey, who scored one goal and had two assists, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
“I think a lot of people played a good game, and we had fun. We had good energy,” Csapo said. “At the end of the day, it’s a conference win. That’s all that matters.”
The Waves got the game going with a goal from Csapo a little over a minute into the game. The Lancers immediately responded with a goal of their own 12 seconds later.
This was the pattern for the entire first half. Any time Pepperdine scored, Cal Baptist responded with a goal to keep the score even.
The teams stayed neck and neck for the majority of the first quarter until CBU junior attacker Logan Puhl put the Lancers on top for the first time, bringing the score to 5-4.
With the score now in favor of the visitors, many CBU fans brought the energy to the pool. Whenever the Lancers scored, a fan would begin a chant with “We are.” The rest of the Cal Baptist fans would respond with “Lancers,” followed by an eruption of applause for their team.
This energy seemed infectious, as the visitors brought fire to the water. CBU sophomore goalie Trevor Alamilo and his defense stifled the Waves and made big saves to keep the score close.
Pepperdine continued to work toward the goal on their attack, but the Lancers’ pressure kept them at bay while the shot clock applied additional pressure.
“I think we got to figure out a better way to manage the time on those and play better defense overall,” Csapo said.
The Waves ended the first quarter tied at five and the second quarter tied at nine to keep a tight first half. However, the third quarter watched the home team pull away, leading 15-11 going into the last quarter of play.
After a frustrating first half, Moses said his team began pressing hard on defense while knowing there was still an entire half to play.
“Just keep playing with heart and playing Pepperdine Water Polo,” Moses said. “We stress that we’re a family, so we stick together, and I definitely think the team showed that they stuck together.”
The fourth quarter got increasingly tense as the last minutes of the game ticked down. CBU senior attacker Bodhi Bowden scored the first goal of the quarter 23 seconds in, closing in on Pepperdine’s lead.
Ionescu responded with his fifth and final goal of the game 22 seconds later. While the CBU defense was trying to shut down the Waves, players began switching up their attacks.
“We were adjusting to the goalie,” Csapo said. “We did a good job with our shooting, finally and finishing our opportunities today.”
However, CBU scored three goals in a row to cut their deficit to 16-15. Moses said Pepperdine needs to work on their driver defense, because that is where they were getting beat.
“I think that we just need to anticipate those drives and make sure we don’t get beat in giving those easy ejections,” Moses said. “They got some counter attack goals as well, so those are things that you can’t give up if you want to win most games.”
Luckily, Csapo tacked on his fourth goal on a beautiful floater with 45 seconds left on the clock. Puhl scored one last goal for the Lancers on a five-meter penalty with 36 seconds left, but it wasn’t enough.
“It definitely wasn’t our prettiest win, but we have a lot of offensive firepower and that showed again,” Moses said.
With this win, the Waves now sit alone atop the WCC standings. However, they are coming up on their biggest conference contests of the year, as they play No. 12 San Jose State and No. 5 Pacific within two weeks.
“We’re taking every single game step by step,” Ionescu said. “We need to forget about these games and just look forward and learn from them.”
Pepperdine hosts the Spartans on Nov. 9 for Senior Day before traveling to Stockton to face the Tigers on Nov. 16.
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