Box Score

MALIBU, Calif. - The No. 8 Pepperdine men's water polo team fell at home, 10-8, to No. 7 UC Santa Barbara on Thursday night in a non-conference matchup.

The Waves stormed back to take a lead in the third quarter, but UC Santa Barbara found a run of their own to pull away in the fourth. Pepperdine falls to 8-6 on the year, while the Gauchos move to 8-4.

After UC Santa Barbara took a 4-3 lead into the half, the Gauchos went up by two with an early score. Pepperdine came roaring back, though, scoring on its next three possessions to take a 6-5 lead.

The Gauchos would score the next five goals, however, netting two before the end of the quarter to go up 7-6 heading to the fourth. Three goals to start the final period made it 10-6.

The Waves scored at the 2:26 and 1:58 marks, but were stopped on their next two possessions to end the game.

Sean Thomas (Covina, Calif./Loyola HS) and Mark Urban (Budapest, Hungary//Diablo Valley College) each scored twice to lead the home team. Reed Cotterill and Shane Hauschild each posted three goals for UC Santa Barbara.

Both teams finished the game going 4-for-10 on powerplay opportunities and each team got off 25 shots in the game.

Marco Asic (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Dana Hills HS) scored a late penalty shot for Pepperdine to give the Waves eight goals, but Liam Lenihan saved the next two Pepperdine attempts to stall out the Wave run.

Pepperdine will be back in action tomorrow at 5 p.m. when the Waves head to No. 3 USC for another non-conference game. Pepperdine then hosts Air Force on Sunday for a noon contest.

No. 7 UC Santa Barbara def. No. 8 Pepperdine, 10-8
UCSB - 3 - 1 - 3 - 3 - 10
PEP - 2 - 1 - 3 - 2 - 8

Scoring
UCSB: Cotterill 3, Hauschild 3, Wilde 2, Jovanovic, Jensen
PEP: Urban 2, Thomas 2, Bridley, Liebhardt, Asic, Toth

Saves
UCSB: Lenihan 5
PEP: Rhodes 5