Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 LA JOLLA, California – The #5 Pepperdine men's water polo team earned a pair of lopsided victories on the second day of competition at the Triton Invitational, defeating Biola 19-4 and Occidental 18-5 on Sunday.
After splitting a tough first day against nationally ranked competitors, the Waves (3-1) had an easier go today against two lower-division opponents.
BIG WAVES
- Senior utility Sean Ferrari (Redwood City, Calif./St. Francis HS) and freshman attacker Kyle Thomas (Covina, Calif./Loyola HS) each had six goals on the day. Ferrari scored a career-high five goals against Occidental, while Thomas had four against Biola.
- Senior center Nicholas Fichmann (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Golden West College) had five goals on Sunday, a career-high four of them coming against Biola.
- Sophomore attacker Jake Howerton (Cardiff, Calif./Cathedral Catholic HS) had four goals today and senior attacker Balazs Kosa (Budapest, Hungary) had three.
- Redshirt freshman goalie Justin Edward (San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Dana Hills HS) made his Pepperdine debut and played a total of five quarters while accumulating 12 saves.
GAME #1 RECAP
The Waves scored the first eight goals of the game and kept Biola off the scoreboard for more than 13 minutes. It was 9-1 at halftime, and then Pepperdine exploded for seven goals in the third quarter, with Fichmann getting two of them.
BU 0-1-2-1--4
PEPP 4-5-7-3--19
Pepperdine goals: Nicholas Fichmann 4,
Kyle Thomas 4,
Anthony D'Ambra 2,
Jake Howerton 2,
Matty Walsh 2,
Connor Cohen 1,
Michael Dakis 1,
Sean Ferrari 1,
Kaden Kaneko 1,
Austin Smit 1.
GAME #2 RECAP
The Waves didn't quite match the great start of the morning game but still tallied the first four goals of the contest against Occidental. Ferrari had four goals by halftime as the Waves took an 11-3 lead at the break. Another six-goal third quarter saw Thomas score twice.
OXY 1-2-1-1--5
PEPP 5-6-6-1--18
Pepperdine goals: Sean Ferrari 5,
Balazs Kosa 3,
Jake Howerton 2,
Kyle Thomas 2,
Zach Arthur 1,
Connor Cohen 1,
Nicholas Fichmann 1,
Jake Gordon 1,
Xavier Marco 1,
Austin Smit 1.
NOTABLE
- Pepperdine's top scorer for the weekend was Ferrari with 10 goals. Fichmann and Thomas each had seven.
- Balazs Kosa is now at 191 career goals, 13th all-time at Pepperdine. Ferrari is at 97 career goals and he will soon be the 43rd Wave to get to 100.
- Three Waves – Christian Hosea, Travis Reynolds and Nico Tierney – missed the opening weekend of play as they competed for the U.S. at the FINA Men's Junior World Championship in the Czech Republic.
QUOTABLE
Pepperdine Coach
Terry Schroeder said: "We did some things very well and we did some things poorly this weekend. It showed us the things we need to work on. Our defense needs to get a little bit stronger. We got beat up by UCSD, and their center took advantage. We're looking forward to getting our three guys back from Junior Worlds. But we got three wins, we know what we need to work on, and overall it was good."
UP NEXT
The Waves play a pair of road games next weekend, visiting #2 USC on Saturday (Sept. 11) at 3 p.m. and PCH Cup rival and #16 Loyola Marymount on Sunday (Sept. 12) at 11 a.m.
