MALIBU, California – Two freshmen led the way as Zach Cwiertnia made 13 saves and Sandor Gal scored four goals, helping the #10 Pepperdine men's water polo team defeat #12 Princeton, 9-7, in non-conference play on Tuesday afternoon.
 
After falling behind 4-1 and 5-2, the Waves (12-10) limited the Tigers (14-5) to two second-half goals. Pepperdine scored the final three times in the fourth quarter to earn the win.
 
BIG WAVES

• Freshman goalie Zach Cwiertnia (Villa Park, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic HS) had 13 saves, the most by any Pepperdine goalie this season. His previous high was 11 against USC.
• Freshman attacker Sandor Gal (Budapest, Hungary) had a goal in each of the four quarters. His previous best was two in a game. He also came away with three steals.
• Junior attacker Anthony D'Ambra (Rolling Hills, Calif./Palos Verdes HS) had a goal and two assists.

GAME RECAP
 
Princeton jumped out to a 4-1 lead two minutes into the second quarter, and it was 5-2 with five minutes to go until halftime. Pepperdine's defense clamped down from there, and the Waves scored the next three goals – coming from graduate attacker Dennis Blyashov (Carlsbad, Calif./Harvard), senior utility Kaden Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) and Gal – to tie the game at 5-5 at the break.
 
Neither side could add to its total for the first six minutes and 45 seconds of the third period. Princeton finally got a 6-on-5 goal with 13 seconds remaining, but Gal came back to tie the game at six with two seconds left.
 
Princeton took its last lead at 7-6 with 7:38 left in the contest, but that would be the Tigers' final tally of the game. Junior center Travis Reynolds (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif./Loyola HS) tied it from two meters with 6:34 left, and Gal put Pepperdine in front with 4:56 to play. D'Ambra lobbed one in with 4:09 left to create an insurmountable two-goal lead, and neither team scored again the rest of the way.
 
PRIN 3-2-1-1---7
PEPP 1-4-1-3---9
Pepperdine goals: Sandor Gal 4, Dennis Blyashov 1, Anthony D'Ambra 1, Kaden Kaneko 1, Travis Reynolds 1, Austin Smit 1.
 
UP NEXT
 
Pepperdine has its final non-conference game coming up against #5 USC at home on Saturday (Oct. 22) at 12 p.m. The game will be streamed on the WCC Network.