Men's Water Polo Challenges #1 Cal in Defeat

Sunday, September 11

Berkeley, Calif.

1:00 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

2-4

California

7-0

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Pepperdine	3	6	2	1	12
California	4	4	4	5	17

Spencer Tybur

Photo by: Catharyn Hayne

9/11/2022 3:51:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: by Athletic Communications

BERKELEY, California – The #9 Pepperdine men's water polo team led #1 California late in the third quarter on the road, but the Golden Bears pulled away late for a 17-12 non-conference victory on Sunday afternoon.

The Waves (2-4) led 9-8 at halftime and 11-10 with a minute left in the third quarter, but Cal (7-0) scored the next five goals. Pepperdine's four losses this season have all come to teams ranked in the nation's top seven.

BIG WAVES

Junior center defender Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) scored a team-high three goals, his third consecutive multi-goal game. All three came in the second quarter.
Senior attacker Curtis Jarvis (Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach HS) posted two goals, his third multi-goal game of the season.
Senior goalie Spencer Tybur (The Woodlands, Texas/Golden West College) made his first start of the season and posted nine saves.

GAME RECAP

The Waves led the game for a significant portion of the first three quarters. They built an early 3-1 lead after a tally by senior utility Kaden Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS). The Golden Bears would take a 4-3 lead after the first period, but at 6-5 Cal, the Waves regained the advantage after scores by sophomore attacker Clay Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) and Tierney. Tierney's third goal of the quarter sent the Waves into halftime with a 9-8 lead.

Jarvis scored the first goal of the second half to make it 10-8. After Cal tied it at 10, junior attacker Anthony D'Ambra (Rolling Hills, Calif./Palos Verdes HS) gave Pepperdine its final lead at 11-10 with 3:33 left in the third quarter. But the Waves would score just once more the rest of the way, and Cal would score the game's next five goals to pull away.

CAL 4-4-4-5---17
PEPP 3-6-2-1---12
Pepperdine goals: Nico Tierney 3, Curtis Jarvis 2, Adam Csapo 1, Anthony D'Ambra 1, Nicholas Fichman 1, Sandor Gal 1, Clay Kaneko 1, Kaden Kaneko 1, Travis Reynolds 1.

UP NEXT

Pepperdine has two contests on Thursday (Sept. 15) at UC Santa Barbara, where the Waves will face Westcliff at 2:30 p.m. and the host Gauchos at 5 p.m. Pepperdine then has its home opener on Saturday (Sept. 17) against Loyola Marymount at 11 a.m. The Waves will also host Brown on Sunday (Sept. 18) at 10 a.m.