No. 16 Water Polo Earns 17-10 Victory Over No. 20 Brown

Saturday, October 24

Santa Clara, Calif.

2:20 PM

Pepperdine University

Brown

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Brown	2	1	2	5	10
Pepperdine	6	2	5	4	17

10/24/2026 6:15:00 PM | Men's Water Polo

Box Score

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — No. 16 Pepperdine water polo (9-12, 2-2 WCC) picked up a 17-10 victory against No. 20 Brown (17-8, 3-2 NWPC) Saturday afternoon from Sullivan Aquatics Center as part of the Julian Fraser Memorial Tournament hosted by Santa Clara.

Milo Joseph led the Waves for the second straight day, with a four-goal effort while drawing six exclusions. Joseph added a pair of steals and a field block to his ledger as well.

Pepperdine allowed just two goals from the 6:33 mark in the first period through the 1:50 mark in the third period, as the Waves got out to a dominant 12-3 lead in the second half. Five of Brown's 10 goals came in the fourth period.

Csanád Bella, Tyce di Pretoro and Owen Tift each had a pair of goals as 11 Waves in total found the back of the cage.

"I'm very proud of how the team bounced back from our loss yesterday with a dominant performance against Brown today," said head coach Merrill Moses. "There are still some defensive errors that we have to fix but the team is going in the right direction. We are looking forward to playing a WCC conference game at home this week against UC Davis on Friday at noon. Please come out and cheer on the team if you are able!"

After Brown scored the opening goal of the game, Pepperdine embarked on a run to take a 5-1 lead less than five minutes into the contest. Ivan Khramtsov got the scoring started for the Waves on the 6-on-5, with Erik Ionescu giving Pepperdine its first lead in which it would never look back from.

The Waves saw three of their six first period goals come on the power play, with Tift and Bella each netting scores with the man advantage. Charles Warmington and Brian Barnuevo also deposited goals as Pepperdine led 6-2 after one.

The second period saw just three goals between the sides, with Tift and di Pretoro potting goals for the Waves, who took an 8-3 advantage into halftime.

Pepperdine's defense continued to stymie Brown in the second half, not allowing a goal until over six minutes in. This allowed the Waves to continue to tack onto its lead, as Joseph netted a pair of 6-on-5 tallies to help push the score to 12-3. Joseph completed his hat trick in the frame while Bell and Hunter Danko added goals to make it a 13-5 game heading into the fourth period.

The Waves saw out the sizable lead in the fourth, adding four more goals via Adam Yost, Joseph, di Pretoro and Conor Brough. George Gayner relieved Max Smirnov in the cage for the Waves after Smirnov made seven stops in 28 minutes of action. The final score read 17-10 in favor of the Waves when the clock hit zero, as Pepperdine improved to 5-3 this season in neutral site contests.

The Waves will return home for a home contest this Friday, welcoming No. 10 UC Davis (14-7, 4-0 WCC) to Malibu with the opening sprint set for noon.

ABOUT PEPPERDINE WATER POLO
Pepperdine water polo has seen success spanning decades under Terry Schroeder who gave the reins to Merrill Moses following the 2023 season. Highlighted by its national championship in 1997 with Moses as the starting goalie, the Waves have reached the NCAA Tournament on 13 occasions and recently won the inaugural WCC Regular Season Championship in 2023. Overall, the program has seen 67 athletes garner All-American honors while boasting a winning record in 37 of 51 seasons.

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