Pepperdine's Defense Shines in Win Over CSU Fullerton

Saturday, October 26

Fullerton, Calif.

1:00 p.m. PT

Pepperdine University

17-5, 2-0

Fullerton

11-14, 0-3

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Pepperdine	3	4	5	3	15
Cal State Fullerton	1	1	2	2	6

Photo by: Kyle Cajero

Pepperdine's Defense Shines in Win Over CSU Fullerton

10/26/2024 4:30:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score Box Score

By: By Athletic Communications

FULLERTON, Calif. – The #7 Pepperdine men's water polo team used stellar defense to defeat CSU Fullerton 15-6 at Titan Aquatics Center on Saturday afternoon.

The Waves (17-5, 2-0) held the Titans (11-14, 0-3) to a .214 shooting percentage, while posting an impressive .500 shooting percentage themselves. Freshman goalie Max Smirnov anchored the defense with 12 saves in the cage.

BIG WAVES

Junior attacker Adam Csapo (Budapest, Hungary) stuffed the stat sheet with three goals, two assists, three steals and two drawn exclusions.
Junior attacker Sandor Gal (Budapest, Hungary) had two goals, two steals and an earned exclusion.
Senior attacker Dane Howell (Huntington Beach, Calif.) collected two goals and one assist.
Freshman attacker Erik Ionescu (Budapest, Hungary) tallied two goals, one assist and one steal.
Freshman goalie Max Smirnov (Petah Tikva, Israel) saved 12 Titan shots while posting a .667 save percentage.
Redshirt freshman attacker Adam Yost (Los Angeles, Calif.) scored his first collegiate goal.

RECAP

After a scoreless first three minutes, back-to-back goals from Christian Hosea (San Clemente, Calif.) and Ionescu put the Waves up 2-0. The two teams traded goals to end the period after Csapo scored his first goal of the game.

Two more goals from Csapo and a score from Gal capped off the Waves' first four-goal run of the game. This put Pepperdine in front 6-1 with 5:23 left in the half. After a Titan goal, Anthony D'Ambra (Rolling Hills, Calif.) scored the last goal of the second quarter to put Pepperdine up by five at the break, 7-2.

The Waves surrendered a penalty shot goal to open the third, but Pepperdine had another run in them. Gal, Jon Carcarey (Santa Maria, Calif.), Howell and Owen Tift (Newport Beach, Calif.) scored four straight goals to put the Waves up 11-3. The Titans then stopped the run, but Milo Joseph (Malibu, Calif.) was able to find the back of the cage to end the period and keep the Waves in front by eight with one quarter to play.

Highlighted by Yost's first collegiate goal, Pepperdine outscored CSU Fullerton 3-2 in the final period and ultimately defeated the Titans 15-6 on the afternoon. The Waves were led by Csapo who continued his strong weekend with another hat-trick, his 11th of the year.

CSUF 1-1-2-2 — 6
PEPP 3-4-5-3 — 15

Pepperdine goals: Adam Csapo 3, Sandor Gal 2, Dane Howell 2, Erik Ionescu 2, Jon Carcarey 1, Anthony, D'Ambra 1, Christian Hosea 1, Milo Joseph 1, Owen Tift 1, Adam Yost 1.

UP NEXT

The Waves will stay on the road and take on #9 UC Irvine at 1 p.m. in Irvine, 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.