Waves Travel to SoCal Invitational This Weekend
10/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Waves Travel to SoCal Invitational This Weekend
Click on the above video player to watch a feature on JP MacDonell from the Pepperdine Pipeline show.
Pepperdine Men's Water Polo Notes (PDF)
SoCal Tournament Schedule (PDF)
October 7, 2009
UPCOMING - The No. 7 Pepperdine men's water polo team (4-6, 1-1) travels to Irvine this weekend for the 2009 SoCal Tournament.
2009 SOCAL TOURNAMENT
GAME #11 PEPPERDINE VS. UC IRVINE (Saturday, Oct. 10, at 9:15 a.m. @ The AntEater Pool, Irvine, Calif.)
The Waves are 0-1 this season with the No. 9 Anteaters. Pepperdine suffered a 9-6 loss to UCI in their final match of the NorCal Tournament (Sept. 20).
No. 7 Irvine is coming off a 10-4 loss to No. 2 UCLA. Cole Bielskis leads the Anteater's offense with 24 goals this season.
Mark Hunt is the head coach for UC Irvine.
GAME #12 - TBA
GAME #13 -TBA
GAME #14 -TBA
LONG BEACH RECAP - Senior Brett Auer led the #8 Pepperdine men's water polo team to an 8-7 win over #9 Long Beach at their home opener on Saturday afternoon.
The Waves (4-6, 1-1) jumped out to a one goal lead in the first period. Senior Taylor Watson (Alamo, Calif./Monte Vista HS) scored two goals on 6-on-5 opportunities. His first goal followed a Long Beach (4-4, 0-2) goal on a penalty at 6:59 by Jason Kochel (LB). Junior Andrew Milcovich (Walnut Creek, Calif./De La Salle HS) netted a goal on a 5-meter penalty shot at 3:40, while Long Beach tied it up at 2-2 with a goal by Taylor Clute with 1:20 left on the clock. Watson scored his second goal with 19 seconds left in the first period.
Long Beach's Jeff Greenwood tied the game at 3-3 with an early goal in the second period at 7:11. Auer responded with back-to-back goals at 6:50 and 2:49 to end the half with the Waves up, 5-3.
Pepperdine was unable to score on two 6-on-5 opportunities early in the third period. Alexsandr Petrovic (LB) took advantage of a Long Beach power play at 5:39 to make the score 5-4. Auer came back with a 6-on-5 goal at 4:00 to put the Waves back up by two at 6-4. Kevin Mundie (LB) scored on another 6-on-5 opportunity with 3:33 left in the period. Teammate Carter Taylor (LB) tied the game at 6-6 with a goal at 1:18 to end the period.
The Waves JP MacDonell (Redwood City, Calif./Bellarmine HS) entered the match in the fourth period and scored soon after at 6:42 and the Pepperdine was back up at 7-6. Sam Busby (La Jolla, Calif./La Jolla HS) scored the final Wave goal with 3:05 on the clock to make the score 8-6. Clute answered with a Beach goal at 2:34, but a strong Pepperdine defense prevented any further scoring and the Waves ended the game up, 8-7.
Freshman goalkeeper Tommy O'Connell (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) had an outstanding 15 saves. Long Beach goalkeeper Derek Weibe-Bailey was credited with six saves.
MPSF CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK - Pepperdine true freshman goalkeeper Tommy O'Connell was selected as Co-MPSF Player of the Week for his MPSF single-game high of 15 saves on Saturday.
The freshman goalkeepers 15 saves helped Pepperdine to an 8-7 win over MPSF rival Long Beach. With the score tied 6-6 after three quarters, he allowed just one goal fourth period goal in helping the Waves to their first conference win of the season.
O'Connell (Trabuco Canyon, Calif./El Toro HS) shares the honors with Janson Wigo of Stanford who recorded a game-high four goals to help Stanford to an 8-6 victory of UCLA.
PEPPERDINE IN THE POLLS - The Waves moved to No. 7 in the national rankings this week, according to the latest NCAA Div. I polls.
MPSF STATS: JP MacDonell is ranked No. 2 for goals scored with a 2.57 average per game. Thomas O'Connell is ranked No. 10 for goalie saves with a 4.00 average per game and No. 5 for goals against with a 4.83 average per game. The Waves are ranked No. 8 for team goals at 9.22 per game and No. 8 for team defense with 8.56 per game.
COACH KOCUR - Coach Jack Kocur is in his fourth year as head coach. Kocur took over the position from Terry Schroeder when he took a leave of absence to serve as the assistant coach for the U.S. National Team in 2006. Kocur was a member of the Waves 1997 national championship team, earning first All-American honors as a senior. Kocur spent four seasons as an assistant under Schroeder.
COACH O'BRIEN - Coach Gary O'Brien begins his second season as assistant coach. O'Brien played for UCLA and then went on to play semi-professionally in Australia. He has eight years of coaching experience at the high school, community college, university and club level.
COACH MATTHIES - Coach Marty Matthies joins the Waves staff as the volunteer coach this season. Matthies was a member of the California 2006 NCAA championship team. He played for the USA Water Polo National Senior Team in 2005. Matthies is the son of Pepperdine's Head Women's Volleyball Coach Nina Matthies.
PEPPERDINE HISTORY - In its 34 seasons, the Pepperdine water polo program has posted an overall record of 648-382-8, including a 163-108 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record. The Waves have posted 15 20+ winning seasons and advanced to the NCAA Championships 12 times, claiming the program's lone national title in 1997.
SUPER SENIOR CLASS - The senior class is comprised of two returning starters and four returning players who were an integral part of the 2008 team. JP MacDonell and Clayton Snyder lead the team as the 2009 co-captain. MacDonell was selected as a 2008 All-American third team and All MPSF first team. He was a member of the 2009 USA Water Polo University Team. Snyder enters his second season as a co-captain. He was named to the 2008 All-MPSF third team and the All-MPSF academic team.
Taylor Watsonhad a strong 2008 season and will be a contender for a starting position. Brett Auer came back at the end of the season after recovering from an injury. He led the Waves with three goals in an upset victory against Stanford at the 2008 MPSF semi-finals. Christian Cardey, Preston Lujan, Sam Busby and Jacob Young round out the senior class. The group has been together all four years with the exception of Young who transferred as a junior in 2008. All four saw significant playing time in the 2008 season and are expected to be key on defense and counter attacks.
REDSHIRTS RETURN - Four redshirts are anxious to get back in the pool this season. Travis Gough, Matt Brown, Jonathan Flowers and Milos Purkovic should all see some action this year. Gough was one of the top freshman scorers in 2007. He scored five goals in a game twice (Whittier and Cal Lutheran). Brown, Flowers and Purkovic will make their debut as Waves this season.
JUNIORS - Andrew Milcovichand Bryce Mclain will represent the junior class this year. Milcovich is a returning
starter and a 2008 MPSF All-Academic team selection. McLain is expected to be the starting goal keeper for the Waves.
AMAZING FRESHMAN CLASS - Fourteen freshmen make the 2009 class one of the largest in Pepperdine history.
Among the group are two USA Water Polo Junior National Team members: Spencer Hamby and James Perry. Fellow Wave Mathew Carter played for South Africa's Junior National Team.
Twelve remaining freshmen fill every position on the roster and look to provide the Waves with depth this season.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE - Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won a total of nine NCAA championships in five different men's sports - one of just 14 schools to have accomplished this feat. Of the 14, Pepperdine is the only non-BCS school and has by far the smallest enrollment. The majority of Pepperdine's teams are ranked nationally year after year and compete for conference and national titles.
