MALIBU, California – Behind five goals from Jake Howerton and four from Balazs Kosa, the #12 Pepperdine men's water polo team picked up its highest-rated win in more than a decade as the Waves knocked off #2 California, 16-14, at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Sunday afternoon.
 
The last time the Waves (10-7) beat a team ranked in the top two was in 2008 against #2 Stanford.
 
Pepperdine got off to a great start and built five-goal leads at 8-3 and 11-6, but Cal (14-2) came back to tie the game at 13 early in the fourth quarter. The Waves, however, scored the next three goals and allowed the Golden Bears to get on the scoreboard just once in the final six-plus minutes.
 
The Waves now have a season-best four-game winning streak.
 
BIG WAVES

• Sophomore attacker Jake Howerton (Cardiff, Calif./Cathedral Catholic HS) set a career high for goals for the second straight day. After getting four on Saturday against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, he came back with five today.
• Senior attacker Balazs Kosa (Budapest, Hungary) recorded a season-high four goals.
• Senior utility Sean Ferrari (Redwood City, Calif./St. Francis HS), senior center Nicholas Fichman (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Golden West College) and sophomore Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) each scored two goals. Ferrari also had five assists and Tierney added four assists and two steals.
• Senior goalie John Claude Marco (Atherton, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep) made seven saves.

GAME RECAP
 
Ferrari and Kosa scored the first two goals of the game and the Waves never trailed. Tierney scored at the end of the first period to put Pepperdine ahead 6-3. The Waves then started the second quarter with goals by Howerton and Kosa to go in front 8-3. After goals by Fichman and Howerton, Pepperdine went up by five again at 11-6 with 35 seconds remaining in the second quarter. The lead was 11-7 at the break.
 
Cal came out strong in the third period, scoring the first three goals to cut the deficit to one at 11-10. Ferrari made it 12-10, and after another Cal goal, Kosa scored to put Pepperdine ahead 13-11 after three quarters.
 
The Golden Bears scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter to tie the game for the first and only time with 6:45 left. But Pepperdine responded almost immediately as Howerton scored on a power play to put Pepperdine back in front, 14-13, with 6:06 left. Tierney connected on a goal with 5:05 to go, and Kosa iced it with a tally with 3:06 left. After holding the Golden Bears scoreless for 5 1/2 minutes, they finally got a consolation goal with 1:13 left, but the Waves were able to run out the clock from there.
 
CAL 3-4-4-3---14
PEPP 6-5-2-3---16
Pepperdine goals: Jake Howerton 5, Balazs Kosa 4, Sean Ferrari 2, Nicholas Fichman 2, Nico Tierney 2, Austin Smit 1.
 
QUOTABLE
 
Pepperdine Coach Terry Schroeder said: "It's definitely a very positive step forward. This team has really grown together over the last few weeks. I felt it coming back from yesterday, there was really good energy on the bus. They're understanding what it is to be a team, what it is to work for each other and sacrifice for each other. They stood their ground today. We knew it was going to be a tough game and a battle but they did a great job.
 
"Withstanding the run that Cal made was a huge part of the win. You know every time you play a good team, that team's going to make a run. How you react to that determines a lot. We talked about it at the end of the third quarter, we saw their run, now let's win the fourth quarter, and we did just that.
 
"It's a good time in the season to start jelling. We have a lot of tough games to go, we start conference pretty soon, but this is a very positive step for this team."
 
UP NEXT
 
The Waves will play two games at California Baptist's Lancer Joust Tournament next Saturday (Oct. 9), first facing host CBU at 10 a.m., followed by Concordia at 2:30 p.m.