Box Score LOS ANGELES – The #5 Pepperdine men's water polo team hung with #2 UCLA for a half, but the Bruins pulled away with a strong third quarter to win 15-9.
 
The Waves (2-1) got most of its offense from Balazs Kosa (Csik Ferenc Általános Iskola és Gimnázium) and Kaden Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS), both of whom scored two goals apiece.
 
GAME RECAP
Both teams traded empty possessions for the first two minutes before UCLA got on the board first. Pepperdine quickly answered when Coleman Carpenter (Pleasant Hill, Calif./College Park HS) scored off an assist from Michael Dakis (Orinda, Calif.,/Miramonte HS). UCLA took a brief 2-1 lead, but the Waves tied it up on a goal from Sean Ferrari (Redwood City, Calif./St. Francis HS). UCLA then took a 3-2 lead with less than a minute to go in the first quarter.
 
Pepperdine went on a little bit of a run in the second quarter, first from Kosa, then from Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif.,/Harvard-Westlake HS) off another Dakis assist. The Bruins would break the 4-4 tie with two goals of their own, including a buzzer-beater to make the score 6-4 at halftime.
 
The Waves won the sprint to start the second half, but the third quarter quickly became all Bruins, as the #2 team in the nation extended its lead to 7-4. Kosa found the net once again with 6:15 to play, yet the Waves wouldn't score again in the quarter. The Bruins offense rattled off three goals in the final 3:25 to take a commanding 10-5 lead going into the fourth quarter.
 
Kaneko snapped the Waves' scoring drought in the fourth quarter with his first goal of the day to make the score 11-6 in favor of the Bruins. UCLA looked like it would go on another run, but Dakis scored with 5:11 to go to make it 13-7. The Bruins would score on a power play 30 seconds later, which kicked off a 2-0 run. Trailing 14-7, Pepperdine scored twice in the final 90 seconds — first from Kaneko, then from Nicholas Fichmann (Sāo Paolo, Brazil/Orange Coast College) — but it was too little, too late.
 
UCLA freshman Mo Kenney led all scorers with five goals, and Pepperdine's Kent Emden (Chicago, Ill.,/Naperville Central HS) had 10 saves.
 
STATS
SCORING: PEP—2—2—1—4—9 ; UCLA—3—3—4—5—15
 
GOALS: PEP— Kosa (2), Kaneko (2), Fichmann, Carpenter, Tierney, Dakis, Ferrari; UCLA— Kenney (5), Rosenfeld (3), Saveljic (2), Pulice (2), Gruwell, Rogers, Travisano. 
 
SAVES: PEP— Emden (10); UCLA— Maurizi (6), Honaker (3)
 
UP NEXT: Pepperdine travels to rival Loyola Marymount on Sunday, Feb. 14 at 2 p.m.