RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The #5 Pepperdine men's water polo team took care of business on Wednesday afternoon, defeating #6 California Baptist 14-9. Balazs Kosa kept up his scoring output, netting three goals for the Waves. Austin Smit also completed a hat trick for Pepperdine. 

The Waves (4-2) and Lancers (4-4) played a tight game all the way until the end, but the Waves pulled ahead early in the fourth quarter and did not give any ground.

PLAY-BY-PLAY

Early on, the Waves and Lancers traded goals, as Travis Reynolds (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif./Loyola HS) got Pepperdine on the board first. The Lancers quickly answered, and Kosa (Csik Ferenc Általános Iskola és Gimnázium) tied the game at two with his first goal of the game. California Baptist then scored their second goal, sending the game to the second quarter in a 2-2 tie. Kosa got his second goal late in the second after the Lancers had scored twice more. Kaden Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) tied the game at four with just over two minutes left in the half. Austin Smit (San Diego, Calif./Cathedral Catholic HS) got his first goal to give the Waves a 5-4 lead. The Lancers scored to close out the half and send the game to the break tied at five.

Michael Dakis (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte HS) got his first goal of the game, and second of the season, to put the Waves up 6-5 early in the third. He was quickly followed by Reynold's second goal of the game to stretch the lead to two goals. After two straight goals from CBU, Kaneko scored his second of the contest to put the Waves back on top by one. It was short-lived, however, as the Lancers tied the game just 30 seconds later. Jake Howerton (Cardiff, Calif./Cathedral Catholic HS) put the Waves up 9-8 at the end of the third. In the fourth, Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) scored back-to-back goals to essentially put the game out of reach at 11-8. Christian Hosea (San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente HS) scored on a five-meter penalty, and both Kosa and Smit completed their hat tricks in the fourth quarter, as the Waves pulled out of grasp of the Lancers.

STATS

SCORING: PEPP—2—3—4—5—14 ; CBU—2—3—3—1—9

GOALS: PEPP— Kosa (3), Smit (3), Kaneko (2), Reynolds (2), Tierney (2), Dakis, Hosea ; CBU— McDonough (3), Barnett (2), Cullen, Griffin, Lowery, Sanchez

SAVES: PEPP— Emden (5) ; CBU— Thorne (14)

UP NEXT

The Waves are back at home on Friday, hosting Golden Coast Conference foe San Jose State in the first of three weekend games at 10:30 a.m.