Waves Close MPSF Invite With OT Loss to UCI

Sunday, September 25

Palo Alto, Calif.

1:40 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

6-8

UC Irvine

6-6

Team	1	2	3	4	OT	OT	Final F
Pepperdine	1	7	4	1	1	0	14
UC Irvine	5	1	3	4	1	1	15

Dennis Blyashov

Photo by: Jeff Golden

9/25/2022 5:12:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

By: by Athletic Communications

PALO ALTO, California – The #11 Pepperdine men's water polo team couldn't hold off #13 UC Irvine in the ninth-place game at the MPSF Invitational on Sunday, as the Anteaters rallied for a 15-14 overtime victory.

A day after preventing UC San Diego from scoring a potential game-tying goal in the final seconds of regulation, the Waves (6-8) found themselves in the same situation, but this time the Anteaters (6-6) scored with eight seconds left to send the game to OT, where they outscored Pepperdine 2-1.

BIG WAVES

Graduate attacker Dennis Blyashov (Carlsbad, Calif./Harvard) had a season-high six goals.
Junior center defender Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) was the only other Wave to score twice.

GAME RECAP

The Anteaters scored the first three goals of the game and led 5-1 after the first quarter. But Pepperdine came roaring back in the second, outscoring UCI 7-1, with Blyashov notching two of them. That made it 8-6 in favor of the Waves, and Blyashov had the opening goal of the third quarter to make it a three-goal lead. It was still a three-goal lead after three quarters as freshman attacker Adam Csapo (Budapest, Hungary) hit a pool-length buzzer-beater to make it 12-9.

The Waves' offense sputtered in the fourth quarter, however, only getting one tally on a 5-meter penalty by Tierney with 1:45 left to make it 13-11. But the Anteaters scored on their next possession, and evened the contest with eight seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

UCI scored first in the extra frame to take its first lead since the second quarter, though Blyashov came right back with his sixth goal. But Pepperdine wouldn't score again for the final four-plus minutes, and UCI got what turned out to be the game-winner with 2:06 left in the second overtime period.

UCI 5-1-3-4-1-1---15
PEPP 1-7-4-1-1-0---14
Pepperdine goals: Dennis Blyashov 6, Nico Tierney 2, Adam Csapo 1, Nicholas Fichman 1, Christian Hosea 1, Curtis Jarvis 1, Travis Reynolds 1, Austin Smit 1.

UP NEXT

The Waves have five games next weekend, the first four of them at the Gary Troyer Tournament being hosted by Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer on Friday and Saturday (Sept. 30-Oct. 1). The Waves then return home to face UCLA at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Sunday (Oct. 2) at 1 p.m.