IRVINE, Calif. - The Pepperdine water polo team was not happy with how things were going at the SoCal Tournament on Saturday. The players got together and decided things needed to change and change they did. On Sunday the #7 Waves defeated #5 Loyola Marymount in the morning and #8 Long Beach in the afternoon, to finish fifth in the tournament.
"The players got together without any coaches and decided this was not how we wanted our season to go," said co-captain Clayton Snyder (Seal Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos HS). "We were tired of losing."
A new team emerged on Sunday morning at 8 a.m. and took everyone by surprise. Spurred on by an enthusiastic parent cheering section, the Waves traded goals with LMU and ended the first quarter tied at 2-2.
Despite a very physical game that saw 28 ejections between the two teams Pepperdine persevered and finished the half up by one goal at 4-3. Snyder contributed two of the four goals.
Traditionally plagued by the third quarter the Waves fought to hold the lead with each team scoring two goals and Pepperdine up at 6-5 when the quarter ended.
The Lions weren't ready to give up and the intensity continued into the fourth quarter. With 7:27 on the clock LMU scored on a 6-on-5 opportunity to tie the score at 6-6. Junior Preston Lujan (Coronado, Calif./Coronado HS) answered back just 27 seconds later with a Wave goal. Senior Christian Cardey (Riverside, Calif./Riverside Poly HS) added another goal at 5:16 on a Pepperdine power play.
With 3:50 left in the game the Lions coach was red carded and left the game. The assistant coach took over. Ejections for both teams followed and with 1:41 left on the clock LMU scored on another 6-on-5 opportunity to make the score 8-7.
While only 19 seconds remained on the clock and the Waves had possession of the ball, Cardey took a chance and netted the last goal of the game to give Pepperdine a 9-7 upset over LMU. Junior goalkeeper Bryce McLain (Costa Mesa, Calif./Newport HS) was instrumental in the win with 13 saves in the cage.
"Our players really took the game into their own hands today," said assistant coach Gary O'Brien. "They decided their own destiny and changed the team's future. These players grew in maturity in the past two days."
At 2:40 p.m. the team convened to meet Long Beach in a match for fifth place. Long Beach had upset #6 Santa Barbara earlier in the day and emotions on both teams were running high. A winning team would be almost guaranteed a drop in the national rankings this week.
Pepperdine's JP MacDonell (Redwood City, Calif./Bellarmine Prep) scored the first goal of the game on a five-meter penalty shot at 7:37. The Beach netted a goal at 4:29 to tie the score at 1-1. The teams traded goals with Lujan scoring at 4:29 and Long Beach scoring at 3:58 to tie at 2-2. Redshirt freshman Travis Gough (Carlsbad, Calif./Carlsbad HS) took advantage of a man-up opportunity with 2:03 left in the quarter and gave the lead back to Pepperdine at 3-2. The game was tied again at 3-3 with 1:22 on the clock after a Long Beach goal. The quarter ended with Long Beach scoring the final goal on a 6-on-5 opportunity. The Waves were trailing 4-3.
A low scoring second quarter saw Pepperdine add two goals and Long Beach one, to end the half at 5-5. Taylor Watson (Alamo, Calif./Monte Vita HS) and MacDonell were responsible for the Wave goals.
For the second time in the day Pepperdine played a strong third quarter with senior Brett Auer (Newport Beach, Calif./ Newport Beach HS) scoring an early goal followed by a 5-meter penalty goal by MacDonell with 5:06 left in the quarter to give Pepperdine a 7-5 lead. Long Beach responded with back-to-back goals to tie the game once again at 7-7. Snyder and MacDonell added two more goals in the last three minutes of the quarter and the Waves were back on top at 9-7.
Pepperdine saw its lead diminish in a physical fourth quarter with three Wave turnovers. The Beach scored three goals to the Waves one. Snyder scored the lone goal early in the quarter. While Pepperdine defense struggled to keep the lead, Long Beach slipped in a goal with 1:41 left on the clock to tie the game at 10-10. The buzzer sounded and the teams went into overtime.
An early Wave ejection led to a Long Beach goal and the first overtime period ended with Long Beach up at 11-10.
Junior Andrew Milcovich (Walnut Creek, Calif./De La Salle HS) scored his second goal of the game and the only goal of the second overtime period to tie the game at 11-11. The teams moved to sudden death.
With 2:15 on the clock in sudden death Snyder scored his fourth goal of the game to give Pepperdine a 12-11 victory and 3-1 finish in the SoCal tournament.
#7 PEPPERDINE 9 #5 LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 7
1 2 3 4
PEP 2 2 2 3 9
UCI 2 1 2 2 7
PEP GOALS: (C. Cardey 2, B. Auer 2, C. Snyder 2, JP MacDonell 1, A. Milcovich 1, P. Lujan 1,)
LMU GOALS: (Forai 2, Aki 2, Benedetti 1, Samuels 1, Asajavicius 1)
Goalie Saves: (B. McClain (PEP) 13, A. Stevens (LMU) 9)
#7 PEPPERDINE 12 #8 LONG BEACH 11
1 2 3 4 OT1 OT2 SD
PEP 3 2 4 1 0 1 1 12
LONG BEACH 4 1 2 3 1 0 0 11
PEP GOALS: (C. Snyder 4, JP MacDonell 3, A. Milcovich 2, T. Watson 1, T. Gough 1, B. Auer 1,)
LONG BEACH GOALS: (A. Petrovic 3, J. Greenwood 3, J. Korpen 1, S. Luth 1, J. Sherrin 1, C. Taylor 1, P. Vanderlinde 1)
Goalie Saves: (B. McLain (PEP) 11, D. Weibe-Bailey (LB) 10)
