Los Alamitos, Calif. - The No. 6 Pacific men's water polo team fell to No. 8 UC Santa Barbara 9-8 Sunday, Oct. 2, in a SoCal Tournament match that required a golden goal to decide a victor.
The Tigers fall to 7-5 with the loss while UC Santa Barbara improves to 10-5.
The Gauchos were dominant early, notching two first-quarter scores before sophomore Balazs Erdelyi put Pacific on the board at the 2:14 mark to cut UCSB's lead to 2-1.
UC Santa Barbara remained on the offensive in the second quarter as the Gauchos tallied three goals, going up 5-1 with 4:42 left in the first half. Senior Tom Koning found the back of the cage at the 3:13 mark to give the Tigers their second score of the match, trimming UCSB's advantage to 5-2 heading into intermission.
Junior Goran Tomasevic scored just one second into the third period to bring Pacific to within two, but two straight goals from the Gauchos extended their lead to 7-3 with one quarter to play.
The Tigers would not go down silently, however, as they mounted a huge comeback in the final period to tie the match and force overtime. Tomasevic netted early in the fourth quarter before Erdelyi scored at the 4:32 mark, cutting UCSB's lead to 7-5. Tomasevic completed his hat trick two minutes later on a six-on-five goal to bring Pacific within one. Erdelyi scored his game-tying goal, also his third of the match, at the 1:11 mark, also on a six-on-five situation, completing Pacific's rally and forcing overtime.
After getting shut out in the fourth quarter, UC Santa Barbara scored first in overtime to reclaim the lead. Erdelyi would come through again for the Tigers, finishing with just 16 seconds left in the first overtime period to knot the game at 8-8.
The two squads failed to score in the second overtime period, forcing a sudden death period that saw the Gauchos score with two seconds on the clock to earn the hard-fought win.
Pacific got incredible performances from its three All-Americans as Erdelyi led all scorers with four goals while Tomasevic accounted for three scores. Sophomore Alex Malkis manned the cage for the Tigers, registering 12 saves.
UC Santa Barbara was paced by three goals from Lazar Komadinic. Goalkeeper Myles Christian tallied 10 saves, including three in overtime.
The Tigers will conclude the SoCal Tournament against No. 5 Pepperdine in a match for seventh place at 1:50 p.m.
| |
1st Q |
2nd Q |
3rd Q |
4th Q |
OT 1 |
OT 2 |
SD |
FINAL |
| UC Santa Barbara |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
9 |
| Pacific |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
9 |
Goals
UC Santa Barbara - Komadinic 3, Gillespie 2, Gronow 2, Shoemaker, Van de Mortel
Pacific - Erdelyi 4, Tomasevic 3, Koning
Goalkeeper Saves
UC Santa Barbara - Christian 10
Pacific - Malkis 12
