Waves Defeat Santa Barbara in Finale, Miss MPSF Tournament
11/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
MALIBU, Calif. - The Pepperdine water polo team picked up an 11-9 victory over UC Santa Barbara Sunday afternoon in Santa Barbara, Calif. to finish Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) in a four-way tie for sixth, but it was not enough to extend the Waves' season as Pepperdine lost out on the tiebreaker for one of the top eight seeds to this weekend's conference tournament.
Pepperdine (13-17, 2-6 MPSF) scored early, and often, against the Gauchos with freshman JP MacDonell and Jason Langten recording three goals apiece.
After falling behind 1-0 in the opening minute, MacDonell scored consecutive goals and Nick Corjon netted his only score of the day to give the Waves a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period.
Clayton Snyder pushed the lead to three with a goal one minute into the second period and following MacDonell's final goal of the day with 28 seconds remaining in the second quarter, the visitors held a 6-3 lead at the half.
Langten recorded back-to-back goals in the third period and Dorian Beaney's goal at the 3:50 mark gave Pepperdine its largest lead of the contest, 9-3.
Trailing 10-4 at the start of the fourth, UC Santa Barbara would mount a comeback, scoring the first three goals of the period to cut the deficit to three, 10-7. With 3:47 to play, Matt Lee notched his only goal of the day to make the score 11-7. UCSB would score twice more within a minute to pull within two, 11-9, but it would mark the final scoring of the day as Pepperdine held on for the victory.
