LOS ANGELES – The sixth-ranked Pepperdine men's water polo team will play for seventh-place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Invite, after falling to #1 UC Santa Barbara and #7 Cal on Saturday.
Balazs Kosa led the way for the Waves, scoring six total goals.
The Waves (10-5) fought hard against both the Gauchos (15-0) and Bears (9-4), trying to make comebacks, but the opposing teams were tough until the end.
PEPPERDINE 10, UCSB 14
In the first game, the Waves took on #1 UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos scored the first goal of the game, but were quickly answered when
Sean Thomas (Covina, Calif./Loyola HS) put a ball in the back of the net to even the score. After the Gauchos scored twice more to take a 3-1 lead.
Mate Toth (Balatonalmadi, Hungary/Szilagyi Erszebet Boarding School) then scored to get the Waves back within a goal.
Marko Asic (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Dana Hills HS) scored after two more goals from UCSB, and Kosa (Budapest, Hungary/Csik Ferenc Általános Iskola És Gimnázium) scored just before the end of the quarter, putting the Waves back within a goal, trailing the Gauchos 4-5 after the first quarter. The Waves scored twice in the second quarter, with
Chris Dilworth (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks HS) scoring first, followed by Thomas's second goal of the game. After one half of play, the Gauchos led 10-6.
Each team scored just a single goal in the third quarter, with Kosa completing his tenth hat trick of the year to keep the Waves four goals back. After three quarters. The Gauchos led 11-7. In the fourth quarter, the Waves got a goal from
Michael Dakis (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte HS) and two from Kosa to finish of the game, falling 10-14 to the Gauchos.
STATS
SCORING: PEPP—4—2—1—3—10 ; UCSB—5—5—1—3—14
GOALS: PEPP— Kosa (4), Thomas (2), Asic, Dakis, Dilworth, Toth
; UCSB— Gvozdanovic (3), Brosnan (2), Halle (2), Yuno (2), Chambliss, Moynihan, Wood
SAVES: PEPP— Emden (9), McKenney (1) ;
UCSB— Roland (7)
PEPPERDINE 8, CAL 9
The second game of the day started off with the two teams trading the first four goals. Mooney and Dakis each scored for the Waves, tying the game at two. After two straight Cal goals,
Sean Ferrari (Redwood City, Calif./St. Francis HS) scored for the Waves to cut the lead to one at the end of the first quarter. At the start of the second, the Bears led off with a goal before Toth got his first of the game, followed closely by Asic's second goal of the day and first of the game. At the half, the Bears led 7-5.
Pepperdine scored just once in the third period, with Kosa capitalizing on a power play. The defense held the Bears to zero goals in the final period, paving the way for a comeback. Kosa got his second of the game and sixth of the day to cut the lead to 9-7. Then, with two minutes to play, Thomas got his first of the game, to get the Waves to within one. Both defenses held, with the Waves falling 8-9.
STATS
SCORING: PEPP—3—2—1—2—8 ; CAL—4—3—2—0—9
GOALS: PEPP— Kosa (2), Asic, Dakis, Ferrari, Mooney, Toth ;
CAL— Deely (2), Hoover (2), Delagrammatikas, Kolasinac, Loth, Molina, Simsek
SAVES: PEPP— McKinney (7), Emden (3) ;
CAL— Weinberg (9)
UP NEXT
The Waves will play in the seventh-place game tomorrow at 8:30 am.
