Nov. 6, 2005
MALIBU, Calif. - Top-ranked USC scored on four of eight man-advantage chances, while No. 5 Pepperdine missed on all seven of its tries Sunday afternoon at McDonald's Swim Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif., as the Trojans avenged their only loss of the season with a 10-4 victory over the Waves in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) water polo action.
"Our 6-on-5 didn't work today, or yesterday for that matter," commented Head Coach Terry Schroeder. "It gets frustrating when we are struggling with the man advantage and then I feel like we start to force the ball more and not be as patient as we should. But it is something we can fix so we will have to keep working on it as we prepare for the MPSF tournament."
USC (-1, -0 MPSF) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the contest scoring at the 3:21 and 2:33 marks of the first period. Senior Jesse Smith pulled Pepperdine (15-8, 1-4 MPSF) to within one after receiving a pass from Matt MacDonell in front of an empty Trojan's net.
The Trojans would score on all three of its power play chances in the second stanza as USC took a 5-1 lead to the half.
USC scored on its first two possessions in the third period before Smith would find the back of the Trojan's net off a re-direct from Adam Hewko at the 5:28 mark. Then with 1:42 remaining in the period, Smith was called for an exclusion three-quarters of the length of the pool away from the ball resulting in his ejection from the game.
Pepperdine would receive goals from Matt Welde and Dorian Beaney in the final period of play, but there would be no comeback for the Waves as they suffered their most lop-sided loss of the season.
"USC came out today more hungry than we did," noted Schroeder. "I think they wanted a bit of revenge for losing to us in Malibu and they were the better team today. I think we lost focus out there at times and were not playing under control like we did when we defeated them at home and that was the difference today."
The Waves will look to shake off the lost on Sat., Nov. 12, when it travels to Westwood for a 1 p.m. (PDT) tilt against No. 4 UCLA.
