Nov. 26, 2010
Photo Gallery 
Stanford, Calif. - In the opening round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, Pacific's men's water polo team fell to No. 3 UCLA, 7-5. With the loss Pacific fell to 16-10 (4-4 MPSF) on the year while the Bruins improved to 14-4 (6-2 MPSF) on the season.
In the first frame, Pacific scored the first goal of the contest when junior Tom Koning (Poway, Calif.) found the back of the net at the 5:59 mark. UCLA's Cristiano Mirarchi then tied the game at one all at the 4:53 spot. The Tigers continued to battle with the Bruins for possession for the next minute however UCLA gained the one point advantage at the 3:41 mark when the Tigers had own goal deflection on a shot from UCLA's Josh Samuels. UCLA went on to close out the quarter taking the 4-1 lead with goals at the 2:02 and :28 spots.
Pacific kicked off the second quarter cutting UCLA's lead in half when senior Joey Gullikson (Sonoma, Calif.) scored a goal at the 6:58 spot. UCLA countered with a goal at the 4:54 point to extend their lead to three. In the final minutes of the first half freshman Alex Malkis (Yoqneam, Israel) had a strong quarter for Pacific, picking up a pair of saves in critical 1-on-1 situations to preserve the 5-2 score.
With a 5-2 lead heading into the third quarter, UCLA notched consecutive goals at the 4:48 and 3:17 spots to gain the five point advantage. After Pacific was held scoreless for nearly 12 minutes, Koning tallied the Tigers' third goal of the game at the 2:00 mark to put Pacific within four of the UCLA. With :48 remaining on the clock, the Tigers were up 6-on-5 when Gullikson tallied his second goal of the game to make it a 7-4 game.
After battling back from a five point deficit, Pacific held UCLA scoreless in the final eight minutes. The Tigers came within two of the Bruins when Gullikson tallied his third goal at the 6:02 on a power play, however Pacific was unable to tally additional goals and fell 7-5 to UCLA.
Pacific was paced by senior Joey Gullikson (Sonoma, Calif.) who tallied three goals for the Tigers while junior Tom Koning (Poway, Calif.) found the back of the net twice. Freshman Alex Malkis (Yoqneam, Israel) had eight saves in the cage for Pacific.
The Tigers will return to action on Saturday, November 27 at 11:30 am against the No. 7 seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.
Scoring Summary
| |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Q4 |
FINAL |
| No. 4 Pacific |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
| No. 3 UCLA |
4 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
7 |
Goals
Pacific: Gullikson 3, Koning 2
Goalkeeper Saves
Pacific: Malkis 8
