SHUHEI MATSUO
Sports Editor
The Pepperdine water polo team increased its rank to No. 4 when it upset No.-5 UC Irvine 11-8 Sunday to capture fifth place at the weekend’s NorCal Invitational, hosted by UC Berkeley.
After having a 3-1 record, with a close 7-5 loss in the second overtime against No.-3 UCLA, Head Coach Jack Kocur said he is very satisfied with the team’s performance this weekend.
“I think the guys are very amped,” he said. “Having a great positive weekend going into playing USC, No. 1 team in the nation, couldn’t have been better for us.”
After dominating No.-8 UC Davis 13-5 on Saturday’s first match, the Waves took the UCLA Bruins in the overtime, which Kocur described as the weekend’s highlight.
“[Redshirt junior] Adam Hewko scoring a goal with 10 seconds left into the game to win it and the referees taking it away from us was probably the highlight of the weekend,” Kocur added.
The day after the tough loss, the Waves bounced back and sank UC Santa Barbara 13-12 in Sunday’s first game and Irvine 11-8 in the second match.
Junior goalie Jack Curley echoed his coach, stating the crew is satisfied that its only loss this weekend was controversial that his team could have won.
“We felt like we got a bad call against us, and if that was called our way, we would have won,” said Curley, who had 12 saves this weekend. “But we feel good about the tournament.”
Playing against best teams in the country was nerve-racking enough, but Curley had special feelings about playing in this tournament, which made him even more nervous.
“I was nervous for my first game because it was my hometown crowd,” the Northern California native said. “Playing in Berkeley was also a special thing for me because that tournament, I would go to when I was little.”
Curley played in the games against Davis and Santa Barbara and had seven and five saves, respectively, to contribute to his team’s victories.
Although Kocur and Curley said they were satisfied with the team’s performances this weekend, sophomore Clayton Snyder, who scored a goal during the match against UCLA, said his team should have finished top three in the tournament.
“I believe that we have the best team right now,” he said. “It’s the matter of peaking at the right time this year. A lot of other teams out there showed the best that they can do this weekend, but we are nowhere near our goal.”
Speaking of the best team, Pepperdine will face the country’s No.-1 University of Southern California Trojans on their home turf Saturday. USC has not lost a game this season, but the Waves have history of snapping its perfect record, like they did two years ago.
Is the Pepperdine squad ready to do it again?
“It’s definitely possible,” Snyder said. “We all believe we can beat USC. And should we not beat USC, I’m confident that we will leave the game with them thinking about Pepperdine differently, with a little bit more respect.”
Kocur said the strategy for Saturday’s game is to play Pepperdine’s game, not the opponent’s.
“I think if we have the momentum and the die-for-each-other mentality, we can compete against the best,” he said. “And that’s our goal.”
The weekend’s match against the Trojans kicks off at 2:30 p.m. at USC.
09-20-2007
