Box Score vs. UCLA

Box Score vs. Stanford

BERKELEY, Calif. - The No. 10 Pepperdine men's water polo team dropped its two games at the Mountain Pacific Invitational on Saturday, falling in the morning to No. 1 UCLA, 11-5, and then to No. 5 Stanford in the afternoon, 11-9.

The pair of losses drops the Waves to 8-3 on the year. Pepperdine opened the tournament with a 12-6 win over No. 8 UC Irvine yesterday.

The Waves played even with Stanford until late in the fourth quarter in the late game. Pepperdine and the Cardinal were tied at 9-9 with less than four minutes to play, but Stanford came up with the next two scores to end the game.

Justin Roberto scored with 3:37 to put the Cardinal up 10-9 and then Cody Smith scored with 1:29 left to end it. It was Smith's fifth goal of the game.

The Waves jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the first quarter, but Stanford came back with four goals to tie the game with 4:49 to play in the second quarter. Mark Urban scored twice to help the Waves get off to the hot start, and Marko Asic, Cristian Bridley and Mate Toth each scored as well in the strong first period.

Pepperdine went up by as much as two in the second half, but the Stanford tied the game three times in the second half. Pepperdine just couldn't get the final goals it needed after the Cardinal tied it at 9-9 in the fourth.

Asic finished with three goals, while Urban and Kenneth Keller each scored two.

The Waves kept the early game with UCLA close as well, trailing 4-2 at the half, but the Bruins used a 5-1 run in the third quarter to pull away. Pepperdine did score twice to open the fourth quarter, but the 9-5 deficit was as close as they would come the rest of the way.

Asic scored three goals to lead the Waves in the game, while Spencer Lupin and Sean Thomas each found the net as well. Patrick Fellner had four goals for UCLA to lead all scorers. The Bruins remained unbeaten on the year with the win.

The Waves play their final game of the tournament tomorrow at 10 a.m.