Men’s Water Polo
Garrett Wait
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine men’s water polo team split its two games this week with teams ranked ahead of them. The 11th-ranked Waves beat No. 8 University of California, San Diego 7-5 last Wednesday evening but lost to No. 3 University of California, San Diego 9-6 on Saturday.
Pepperdine traveled to UC San Diego last Wednesday coming off of a weekend in which it split against two teams in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Waves hoped to beat UCSD to get their record back up to .500 and that’s just what they did.
The teams were just feeling each other out in the first quarter, looking for match ups to exploit. UCSD scored the only goal in the period, taking a 1-0 lead into the second quarter.
The Waves’ offense exploded for four goals in the second quarter, and the defense stayed strong, holding the Tritons to two goals. Pepperdine held a 4-3 advantage going into halftime.
Both teams came out with more intensity on defense in the second half and were able to hold their opponents to just one goal in the third quarter, giving Pepperdine a 5-4 lead heading into the decisive fourth period.
UCSD tied the match at five with 5:15 remaining in the game, but Pepperdine freshman Grant Miller put the Waves up for good just 30 seconds later. Miller then scored another goal later in the period to make the final winning margin two goals.
Miller scored three of Pepperdine’s goals while senior Josh Acosta added two of his own. Freshman Adam Hewko and sophomore Doug Mann each scored one goal for the Waves as Pepperdine won its second straight match.
The Waves came back to Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Saturday to host the defending national champion USC Trojans. Pepperdine played well and hung with USC for most of the game but lost 9-6.
USC scored the first goal of the game in the first period and held the Waves scoreless to take a 1-0 lead into the second period.
The Waves came out strong in the second quarter in what is becoming a trend for the team. Pepperdine again outscored its opponent in the second quarter, scoring two goals to USC’s one, making the score 2-2 at halftime.
The third quarter was a back-and-forth struggle in which both teams tried to put the game out of reach. USC scored the first goal of the quarter to take the lead in the match, but on the very next possession, Acosta answered with a goal of his own.
The Trojans then scored three straight goals to take a 6-3 lead but quickly lost the momentum in the match as Pepperdine came back with two goals of its own, making it a 6-5 game going into the final period.
The Waves were unable to keep up with USC’s offensive firepower and let the game slip away in the fourth as USC scored three goals while Pepperdine only managed to have one shot find the back of the net.
“I think we played well,” Miller said. “We really just made a few minor mistakes that caused some turnovers and led to goals, so it’s nothing we can’t fix for our next matches.”
Freshman Matt Digges led Pepperdine with three goals in the match. Acosta chipped in two of his own and Miller added one goal for the Waves. Freshman goalie Robbie Miller ended the match with five saves.
Pepperdine finished the week with an 11-12 record on the season and a 2-5 record in MPSF play. The Waves will need to win two of their final three games in order to finish above .500 for the season.
Heading into the final three games of the season, Miller leads the team in goals with 41 goals. Acosta follows him with 30 goals on the year.
The Waves have outscored their opponents 177-170 this season.
The Waves play two of their three remaining regular season matches at Pepperdine, where the team is 1-3. Pepperdine’s next match is Thursday at 2 p.m. at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool against Loyola Marymount University which has beaten Pepperdine twice already this season.
“We just need to play our game,” Miller said. “I mean, we know we’re better than them. We just need to play better and cut down on our mistakes and it will work out.”
On Saturday, the Waves play University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara in the first match up between the two teams this season.
11-11-2004
