October 14, 2011

Weekly Release in PDF Format

What's Happening
The No. 6 Pacific men's water polo team opens Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play this weekend with a road match at No. 8 Pepperdine. The opening sprint is set for 1 p.m.

Last Week In Brief
The Tigers journeyed up I-5 for a nonconference road match at then-No. 10 UC Davis that resulted in a lopsided 10-5 victory for the Orange and Black. It marked the second win over the Aggies on the season as both junior Goran Tomasevic and sophomore Balazs Erdelyi tallied three goals apiece.

A Quick Look Ahead
Pacific will host No. 1 Stanford in its first home MPSF match of the season on Friday, Oct. 21. The match marks the Tigers' first home tilt in almost one month as Pacific last played at home on Sept. 25.

News And Notes
Erdelyi continued his strong play against UC Davis, notching three scores. He now owns a 12-match scoring streak and has scored multiple goals in a team-leading 10 matches.

Friday's match saw Tomasevic record his fifth hat trick of the season and has now scored multiple goals in nine matches.

Sophomore goalkeeper Alex Malkis saved 10 shots against the Aggies, his seventh double-digit save outing of the year. He has tallied at least ten saves in six of his last seven matches in the cage.

Upcoming Milestones
Senior Tyler Reardon played his 97th career match against UC Davis. He is on pace to play his 100th match as a Tiger against UC Irvine on Oct. 29. Fellow senior Tom Koning has played 96 career matches for Pacific.

Reardon is also five steals shy of 100 career thefts.

Scouting Pepperdine
The Waves enter their match with Pacific at 8-7 on the year, including an 0-1 mark in MPSF play. Pepperdine fell to then-No. 1 Stanford 9-5 Friday, Oct. 7, before rebounding to defeat then-No. 18 Santa Clara 12-6 the following day. The Waves are 2-4 in their last six games.

Sunday's match marks the third time the two squads have met this season. The first match resulted in a 14-11 Pepperdine victory at the NorCal Tournament while the second match saw the Tigers defeat the Waves 11-9 in overtime at the SoCal Tournament.

Erdelyi has scored a combined six goals against the Waves this season. Tomasevic and seniors Tom Koning and Joey Doyle have accounted for three goals apiece. Malkis has tallied 17 total saves in the previous meetings.

For the Waves, seniors Andrew Milcovich and Nathan Castillo and junior Matthew DeTrane have scored five goals apiece in the previous matches. Sophomore goalkeeper Bence Valics has recorded 24 saves against Pacific this year.

MPSF Stat Rankings
Sophomore Balazs Erdelyi ranks third in the MPSF in goals per game with a 2.63 average. He has tallied 34 scores on the year, good for fourth in the conference.

Senior Tom Koning is averaging 2.07 goals per game, ranking sixth, while junior Goran Tomasevic is scoring an average of 1.93 goals per game, good for eighth.

Sophomore goalkeeper Alex Malkis ranks third in the league with an average of 10.13 saves per game. He is one of only three keepers to average more than 10 goals per game. His 114 saves this season is third-most in the MPSF.

Recapping Last Week

Pacific 10, No. 10 UC Davis 5
The No. 6 Pscific men's water polo team defeated No. 10 UC Davis 10-5 in a nonconference road match Friday, Oct. 7, at the Schaal Aquatics Complex in Davis, Calif.

The Tigers improve to 9-5 with the win while the Aggies drop to 16-6 on the year.

"I was very pleased with our performance tonight," Pacific head coach James Graham said. "Going up against a strong UC Davis team, I thought it was some of the best water polo we've played this season."

Pacific tallied the first goal of the match when sophomore Balazs Erdelyi found the back of the cage at the 7:07 mark. After UC Davis answered with a score of its own, goals from senior Todd Hazen and Erdelyi gave the Tigers a 3-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Junior Goran Tomasevic netted early in the second to give Pacific a 4-1 advantage. The two squads would go on to trade a pair of goals, as scores from senior Jasper Visser and Tomasevic put Pacific ahead at 6-3 heading into intermission.

The Tigers extended their lead to 7-3 on a six-on-five goals from senior Daniel Lungu. A Tomasevic goal late in the third quarter Pacific a five-score lead with one quarter left to play. The Tigers locked down on defense as well, holding the Aggies scoreless in the third frame.

UC Davis would put away two shots in the fourth quarter but could not stop the Tigers' offense, as Visser and Erdelyi both scored to seal the win.

Erdelyi and Tomasevic led all scorers with three goals apiece. For Erdelyi, it was his eighth consecutive multi-goal outing. Visser recorded his first multi-goal match of the season thanks to his two scores.

Manning the cage was sophomore Alex Malkis. He registered 10 saves on the night, his seventh double-figure block match of 2011. Malkis anchored a Pacific defense that held the Aggies to their lowest point total of the season.

"I thought our defense was impressive tonight," Graham continued.

The Aggies got each of the goals from a different player. Senior goalkeeper Kevin Peat tallied six saves.