MALIBU, California – The #11 Pepperdine men's water polo team scored on each of its final three possessions to stun #8 UC Santa Barbara, 13-12, in Golden Coast Conference play at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Saturday afternoon. This was the regular-season finale for both teams.
The Waves (13-13, 2-3) overcame a four-goal third-quarter deficit, and trailed the Gauchos (13-12, 3-2) by two with less than two minutes to play before a furious rally gave Pepperdine a victory on Senior Day. The Waves' only lead of the game came in the final 11 seconds.
BIG WAVES
- Freshman attacker Adam Csapo (Budapest, Hungary) scored five goals, his third-highest output of the season. He scored three of his goals in the fourth quarter.
- Junior center defender Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) had two goals and two assists, and scored the game-winning goal with 11 seconds remaining.
- Senior attacker Curtis Jarvis (Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach HS) posted two goals and three assists.
- Graduate attacker Dennis Blyashov (Carlsbad, Calif./Harvard) recorded two goals, an assist and four steals.
GAME RECAP
The Gauchos opened up a 3-2 lead after the first quarter, and scored the first three goals of the second quarter to go ahead 6-2. Blyashov posted the Waves' only second-quarter goal as they trailed 6-3 at the break.
UCSB went up by four once again at 7-3 early in the third period, through Pepperdine closed the gap to 9-7 after three quarters. Pepperdine got within a goal at 9-8 on a Csapo score, but UCSB went back up by three at 11-8 with 5:43 to go.
UC Santa Barbara scored with three minutes left to go up 12-10, but that would be their last tally of the game. Sophomore attacker
Clay Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) scored from long range with 1:41 left to make it a one-score game. After an offensive foul gave the Waves the ball back, Csapo hit a cross-cage lob to tie the game with 52 seconds left.
On the defensive end, Kaneko forced a turnover and caused an exclusion with 27 seconds left. After a timeout, Tierney netted what turned out to be the game-winner on the 6-on-5 from close range off Kaneko's assist with 11 seconds left. UCSB had one last chance to tie, but sophomore center
Matty Walsh (Laguna Beach, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic HS) got a hand on the shot and knocked it away.
UCSB 3-3-3-3---12
PEPP 2-1-4-6---13
Pepperdine goals: Adam Csapo 5,
Dennis Blyashov 2,
Curtis Jarvis 2,
Nico Tierney 2,
Clay Kaneko 1,
Travis Reynolds 1.
UP NEXT
The Golden Coast Tournament will be hosted by UC Santa Barbara next weekend. The Waves will be the #5 seed and their first-round game will be Friday (Nov. 18) at 5 p.m. against UC Irvine.
