Pepperdine Men's Water Polo Falls 8-2 at USC

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The No. 9 Pepperdine men’s water polo team dropped a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matchup on the road to No. 2 USC on Saturday afternoon, falling 8-2 to the Trojans.

The Waves pulled to within one goal in the second quarter, but couldn’t score again the rest of the way as USC pulled away.

Pepperdine scored both of its goals in the second quarter with Mark Urban (Budapest, Hungary//Diablo Valley College) and Luke Hewko (Irvine, Calif./Servite HS) turning in scores. Urban got the Waves on the board, making it 1-1 with a goal at the 5:25 mark in the quarter. After a pair of USC scores, Hewko made it a 3-2 game, scoring a goal with :55 seconds left in the half.

A four-goal quarter to open the second half for USC put the game out of reach, however.

Zack Rhodes (Palm Desert, Calif./Palm Desert HS) led the Waves with 12 saves in the game. Pepperdine drew nine ejections in the game, but could only convert on one of the power-play opportunities.

The Waves fall to 10-8 overall, 1-2 MPSF with the loss. USC improves to 16-2 overall, 4-0 MPSF. Pepperdine will be back in action next week when they host Concordia on Friday.

#2 USC 8, #9 Pepperdine 2
Oct. 17, 2015 - Uytengsu Aquatics Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
USC  1 - 2 - 4 - 1 = 8
PEP   0 - 2 - 0 - 0 = 2
SCORING:
USC — Nick Bell 2, Blake Edwards, Mihajlo MIlicevic, Lachlan Edwards, Bryce Hoerman, Grant Stein, Matteo Morelli.
PEP — Mark Urban, Luke Hewko.
SAVES: McQuin Baron (USC) 8, Zach Rhodes (PEP) 12.