Five Waves Honored in GCC Postseason Awards
11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
MALIBU, Calif. - Five members of the Pepperdine men's water polo team were honored in the Golden Coast Conference postseason awards on Tuesday. Mark Urban was the lone Wave who earned All-GCC first team recognition.
In addition to Urban, Marko Asic and Zack Rhodes were named to the All-GCC second team, Mate Toth garnered honorable mention and Coleman Carpenter was named to the All-Freshman team.
Urban, a senior from Budapest, Hungary, led the Waves in points on the year, with 43 goals and 36 assists, good for 79 points. He helped the team to 17 victories on the year, acting as a captain. He scored a career-high five goals on Oct. 28 against Claremont Mudd-Scripps. Urban also acted as the Waves' leading sprinter, winning 64% of sprints (16-of- 25). This is Urban's second consecutive year earning All- GCC first team honors.
Asic, a junior from Laguna Niguel, Calif., led the Waves in scoring this year with 64 goals, which were third in the GCC. Asic had 11 hat tricks on the year, including three games in which he scored four goals (9/16 vs. Redlands, 9/17 vs. Whittier, and 10/13 against Long Beach State). Zack Rhodes also earned second team honors this year, after a solid season in between the posts. Rhodes, a senior from Palm Desert, Calif., broke the Pepperdine water polo all-time saves mark this year, compiling a total of 1,068 saves in for his career, and counting. His 293 so far this year are second in the GCC, only two behind the leader.
Toth (Balatonalmadi, Hungary/Szilagyi Erzsebet Boarding School) was an honorable mention in the GCC honors for the second straight year, after also being named to the All-Freshman and second team last year. Toth was fourth on the team with 31 goals on the year. He had two hat tricks this season for the Waves (9/22 vs. UC Davis and 10/27 against San Jose State).
The final Wave honored was Carpenter (Pleasant Hill, Calif./College Park HS) who was named to the GCC All-Freshman team after a solid start to his collegiate water polo career. He had 10 goals for the Waves this year, including two against Harvard on Sept 2. The Waves will continue play at the GCC Tournament in Irvine Calif. where they are the four-seed and face fifth-seeded San Jose State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. The winner of the GCC Tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
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