SANTA BARBARA, California – The #10 Pepperdine men's water polo team ended the regular season with a 16-13 loss to #6 UC Santa Barbara on Saturday afternoon.
The Waves (14-12, 1-4) finished in a fifth-place tie in the Golden Coast Conference. The Gauchos (20-8, 3-2) tied for second.
BIG WAVES
- Sophomore attacker Jake Howerton (Cardiff, Calif./Cathedral Catholic HS) scored a game-high four goals and had three assists.
- Senior attacker Balazs Kosa (Budapest, Hungary) and sophomore attacker Christian Hosea (San Clements, Calif./San Clemente HS) each scored three goals. Kosa also had three assists.
- Sophomore center defender Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) scored twice.
- Senior goalie John Claude Marco (Atherton, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep) recorded 13 saves.
GAME RECAP
The Waves fell behind 6-3 after the first period, but kept the Gauchos off the scoreboard entirely in the second period. They closed the gap to 6-5 at halftime, then took their only lead of the game at 7-6 on goals by Howerton and Kosa early in the third. A high-scoring third period saw both teams score five times. It was tied at 10 late in the third, but UCSB scored the next three goals to go ahead 13-10 with 6:49 remaining in the contest. Howerton scored twice to get it back to a one-goal deficit at 13-12 with 4:19 to play. But the Gauchos scored the next two goals and went on to win.
UCSB 6-0-5-5---16
PEPP 3-2-5-3---13
Pepperdine goals: Jake Howerton 4,
Christian Hosea 3,
Balazs Kosa 3,
Nico Tierney 2,
Travis Reynolds 1.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine will be the #5 seed at next weekend's GCC Tournament, which will be hosted by UC Irvine. The Waves will face fourth-seeded San Jose State on Friday (Nov. 19) at 7 p.m.
