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Box Score 2 PALO ALTO, California – The #11 Pepperdine men's water polo won twice on Saturday at the MPSF Invitational, beating Pomona-Pitzer 16-5 in the morning before edging #14 UC San Diego 12-11 in the afternoon.
The Waves (6-7) moved on to Sunday's ninth-place game after outscoring the Tritons 4-2 in the fourth quarter to gain the victory.
BIG WAVES
- Freshman attacker Adam Csapo (Budapest, Hungary) had four goals in the win against the Tritons, giving him a total of 11 in the Waves' two victories over UCSD this season.
- Graduate attacker Dennis Blyashov (Carlsbad, Calif./Harvard), junior attacker Christian Hosea (San Clements, Calif./San Clemente HS) and junior center Travis Reynolds (Rolling Hills Estates, Calif./Loyola HS) all had four goals on the day.
GAME #1 RECAP
The Sagehens, the top-ranked team in NCAA Division III, took their only lead at 2-1 midway through the first quarter. But the Waves took the lead for good after scoring the next three goals. At 4-3, Pepperdine ran off four straight goals to make it 8-3 in the third quarter. It was 11-5 after three periods and the Waves outscored the Sagehens 5-0 in the final quarter.
P-P 2-1-2-0---5
PEPP 3-5-3-5---16
Pepperdine goals: Dennis Blyashov 3,
Christian Hosea 3,
Travis Reynolds 2,
Kyle Thomas 2,
Zach Arthur 1,
Rocco Cuttone 1,
Nicholas Fichman 1,
Sandor Gal 1,
Curtis Jarvis 1,
Nico Tierney 1.
GAME #2 RECAP
The Tritons took a 4-1 lead early in the second quarter and still led by three at 6-3 late in the period. Goals by Csapo and freshman attacker
Sandor Gal (Budapest, Hungary) made it 6-5 at halftime. The Waves tied it at eight late in the third quarter on a strike by Hosea, though UCSD scored to go ahead 9-8 after three quarters.
Csapo tied the game again at nine, starting a 4-0 run that also included goals by Blyashov, sophomore attacker
Clay Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) and junior center defender
Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS). That put Pepperdine ahead 12-9 with five minutes left. However, the Waves wouldn't score again, and the Tritons got goals with 4:01 and 1:11 left. But, Pepperdine stopped UCSD from scoring again in the final minute to post the victory.
UCSD 3-3-3-2---11
PEPP 1-4-3-4---12
Pepperdine goals: Adam Csapo 4,
Travis Reynolds 2,
Dennis Blyashov 1,
Nicholas Fichman 1,
Sandor Gal 1,
Christian Hosea 1,
Clay Kaneko 1,
Nico Tierney 1.
UP NEXT
Pepperdine will play in the ninth-place game at Stanford's Belardi Pool at 1 p.m. on Sunday (Sept. 24) against either San Jose State or UC Irvine.
