MALIBU, Calif. – The #4 Pepperdine men's water polo team (10-2) dropped the home contest 14-11 against the #3 Stanford Cardinal (11-1) at
Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinal edged out the Waves by outshooting them .400 to .393 in addition to converting two of their three penalty shots.
BIG WAVES
- Junior attacker Adam Csapo (Budapest, Hungary) had two goals and three assists today.
- Fifth year attacker Christian Hosea (San Clemente, Calif.) continued his stellar weekend and tallied five goals on a .555 shooting percentage.
- Freshman attacker Erik Ionescu (Budapest, Hungary) posted two goals and four assists against the Cardinal.
RECAP
Stanford jumped ahead early by scoring the first goal of the game, but Csapo countered and knotted the game 1-1 on the very next possession. The Cardinal then responded with the games' next three goals, which forced the Waves to play catch up for the rest of the game. Hosea scored his first goal of the contest at the end of the first period and made it a 4-2 game in favor of Stanford after the first eight minutes.
Both teams traded goals during the second period as
Milo Joseph (Malibu, Calif.) and Hosea both scored twice in the quarter to keep the deficit at two heading into the break, 8-6.
Ionescu opened the scoring in the second half and brought Pepperdine within one, but back-to-back goals from Stanford would put them back in front by three with 5:07 left in the period. Csapo would net his second goal of the game to bring the Waves back within two with one quarter left to play.
The Cardinal opened the last period with their second three-goal run to increase their lead to five with 4:05 left to play. Hosea would find the back of the net for his fifth goal of the game with 3:23 left, but Stanford would make a couple more stops and hold on to defeat Pepperdine 14-11.
STAN 4-4-2-4 — 14
PEPP 2-4-2-3 — 11
Pepperdine goals:
Christian Hosea 5,
Adam Csapo 2,
Erik Ionescu 2,
Milo Joseph 2.
UP NEXT
The Waves will head to Claremont, Calif. for the Gary Troyer Tournament next Friday and Saturday where they will play four games in two days. Pepperdine will face off against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer on Friday before taking on #8 UC Irvine and Concordia on Saturday.
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.