Los Angeles, Calif. – The #4 Pepperdine men's water polo team (10-1) held off a strong  #9 UC San Diego team at Spieker Aquatics Center on Friday afternoon. The Waves and Tritons went back-and-forth all day, but Pepperdine was able to get timely goals in the fourth quarter to win the game 15-12.
 
BIG WAVES

• Graduate utility player Kaden Kaneko (Huntington Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS) had a career-high four goals on the day.
• Sophomore attacker Sandor Gal (Budapest, Hungary/Leovey Klara Gimnazium) scored twice and had an assist.
• Center defender Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) tallied two goals on the day, while also picking up three assists.

GAME RECAP
 
Adam Csapo (Budapest, Hungary/BME International Secondary School) found the back of the net early in the first quarter to give the Waves an early 1-0 lead.  Later on in the quarter, Kaden Kaneko scored twice to increase Pepperdine's lead to 3-0. The Tritons battled back and had the game knotted up at four-all at the end of the period.
 
UCSD opened up the second quarter with a goal to take a 5-4 lead. Ryan Brosnan (Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor HS/UC Santa Barbara) then connected with Nico Tierney (Sierra Madre, Calif./Harvard-Westlake HS) who put the ball in the net to quickly tie the game up at five-all. After a timeout called by the Waves, Tierney, Curtis Jarvis (Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach HS) and Kaden Kaneko all scored to give Pepperdine four straight goals and a 8-5 lead. Kaneko's goal earned him a hat trick on the day. Later in the period, a couple goals by UC San Diego trimmed Pepperdine's lead to 9-7 going into the break.
 
The Waves and Tritons traded goals in a back-and-forth third quarter. Pepperdine got goals from Csapo, Sandor Gal and Kaden Kaneko to take a 12-10 lead heading into the final period.
 
Gal opened up the fourth quarter with a quick goal to increase the Waves lead to 13-10. UCSD countered with a goal of their own to make it a 13-11 lead for Pepperdine halfway through the final period. Jon Carcarey (Lompoc, Calif./Orange Lutheran HS) then had back-to-back goals to give the Waves a 15-11 lead with two minutes to play. Pepperdine held on to win the game 15-12.
 
Kaden Kaneko led the way with four goals, and a total of eight Waves scored in the contest.
 
UCSD 4-3-3-2—12
PEPP 4-5-3-3—15
 
Pepperdine goals: Kaden Kaneko 4, Jon Carcarey 2, Adam Csapo 2, Sandor Gal 2, Nico Tierney 2, Christian Hosea 1, Curtis Jarvis 1, Matty Walsh 1.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Waves will face off against #2 UCLA at 11 a.m. at Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Saturday, Sept. 23. A win against the Bruins will have the Waves playing again at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night, while a loss will have their second game at 5 p.m.