Water Polo Improves to 2-0 in Conference Play

Friday, October 25

Los Angeles, Calif.

6:00 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

16-5, 2-0

LMU

9-11, 0-3

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Pepperdine	2	5	1	4	12
Loyola Marymount	2	2	3	3	10

Photo by: James Hanson

10/25/2024 8:45:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

By: By Athletic Communications

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The #7 Pepperdine men's water polo team improved to 2-0 in West Coast Conference play with a 12-10 win over PCH Cup rival #17 Loyola Marymount at Burns Aquatic Center on Friday night.

The Waves (16-5, 2-0) outshot the Lions (9-11, 0-3) .387 to .323, while the squads remained even on power plays as well as total shots.

BIG WAVES

Junior attacker Adam Csapo (Budapest, Hungary) posted a hat-trick to go along with one assist.
Junior attacker Sandor Gal (Budapest, Hungary) tallied a pair of goals and assists in the game.
Fifth year attacker Christian Hosea (San Clemente, Calif.) had three goals, three drawn exclusions and one steal.
Freshman attacker Erik Ionescu (Budapest, Hungary) scored two goals.

RECAP

Thanks to a beautiful pass from Jon Carcarey (Santa Maria, Calif.), Hosea found the back of the cage to put Pepperdine up 1-0. The Lions and Waves then traded goals through the middle of the period as Charles Warmington (Newport Beach, Calif.) added his name to the stat sheet. Loyola Marymount would score the last goal of the quarter to send the game to the second period 2-2.

Coming out firing, back-to-back goals from Csapo and Hosea put Pepperdine up by two within the first two minutes of the second quarter. Two more scores from the Waves, including another one from Hosea who earned a hat-trick in the first half, put them in front 6-2. The Lions battled back, but Csapo's second goal of the game with 13 seconds left in the half made it a 7-4 game in favor of the Waves at the break.

In a low scoring third quarter, Ionescu found the back of the net for Pepperdine, while Loyola Marymount scored three times to cut the Waves' lead to one with eight minutes to play, 8-7.

Pepperdine's trio from Budapest, Hungary - Ionescu, Csapo and Gal - scored three of the first four goals in the final period to give the Waves an 11-8 lead with 5:50 remaining. Two straight scores from the Lions made it a one goal game with 1:24 to play, but a penalty shot goal by Gal with 21 seconds left put Pepperdine up 12-10 and iced the game for the Waves.

Pepperdine was led by Csapo and Hosea who both earned hat-tricks in the game.

LMU 2-2-3-3 — 10
PEPP 2-5-1-4 — 12

Pepperdine goals: Adam Csapo 3, Christian Hosea 3, Sandor Gal 2, Erik Ionescu 2, Clay Kaneko 1, Charles Warmington 1.

UP NEXT

The Waves will stay on the road and take on CSU Fullerton at 1 p.m. in Fullerton, Calif. tomorrow afternoon. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, and a link to the stream can be found on the water polo team's schedule page on pepperdinewaves.com.

FOLLOW

Follow @PeppWaterPolo on X for updates and check out PepperdineWaves.com and Facebook (/PeppWaterPolo) for releases and more information. Find the Waves on Instagram @peppwaterpolo.