PEPPERDINE FALLS TO PACIFIC IN OVERTIME, 9-8

Mate Toth (photo by Jeff Golden)

The Waves were playing their first home game of the year on Sunday.

MALIBU, Calif. – The No. 9 Pepperdine men’s water polo team battled the No. 4-ranked Pacific Tigers into overtime, but fell 9-8 in both teams’ Golden Coast Conference opener on Sunday.

The Wave battled back from a 3-0 deficit and held a lead in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t put Pacific away, falling to 8-5 overall on the year and 0-1 in GCC play. The Tigers move to 12-2, 1-0 GCC on the year.

“We’ve made some good strides and played a competitive game against a very good Pacific squad,” said Pepperdine Head Coach Terry Schroeder. “We were right there with them and put ourselves in a position to win the game in the fourth quarter, we just have to be able to close it out. This is a young squad we have, though, and I like the progress we’re making.”

The teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 6-6, when Pacific took a one-goal lead on a score by Engin Ege Colak with 6:50 to play. The Waves came right back with a 6-on-5 goal from Marko Asic (Laguna Niguel, Calif./Dana Hills HS) to even things at 7-7 once again.

Just over 30 seconds later Asic found the back of the net again off a quick pass by Kenneth Keller (Long Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos HS) and the Waves led 8-7 with 5:52 to play. Pacific would tie things back up with 2:38 to play and then scored the only goal in overtime to win it. Aleksander Petrovic scored the equalizer for the Tigers and then got the assist on Colak’s goal in the first overtime.

Pepperdine had several chances to break the tie in the last 2:30 of regulation, but turned it over twice and had a shot saved.

Pacific came out with two goals in the first quarter and then added one early in the second to take what would be the largest lead of the game for either team. The Waves stormed back with three goals before halftime to even things up. The Tigers scored with six seconds left in the first half to take a 4-3 lead into the break.

Mate Toth (Balatonalmadi, Hungary/Szilagyi Erzsebet Boarding School) scored twice in the second period including the equalizer with 2:26 to help Pepperdine get back in it.

Four players posted two goals each for the Waves on the day. Along with Asic and Toth, Brock Liebhardt (Fremont, Calif./Washington HS) and Keller each scored twice. Colak led all players with three scores for the Tigers.

Zack Rhodes (Palm Desert, Calif./Palm Desert HS) came up big for the Waves in goal several times on the day, posting 18 saves in the contest. Alen Osmanovic has 12 saves for Pacific.

“We really improved our defense from last week,” said Schroeder. “We wanted to keep it low scoring and they were only 3-for-9 on their powerplay opportunities, so that’s a good number for us. Offensively we’re still young and have a lot of room to grow, but the guys made a big jump from last week in how we played. We just have to keep working hard.”

The Waves will be back in action on Thursday when they host UC Santa Barbara for a 6:30 p.m. game. That match can be seen live on WaveCasts via Campus Insiders.

No. 4 Pacific def. No. 9 Pepperdine, 9-8 (ot)
PAC – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 1 – 0 – 9
PEP – 0 – 3 – 3 – 2 – 0 – 0 – 8

Scoring
PAC: Colak 3, Reeves 2, Petrovic, Araya, Ai, Thumwood
PEP: Liebhardt 2, Keller 2, Asic 2, Toth 2

Saves
PAC: Petrovic 12
PEP: Rhodes 18