Los Angeles, Calif. – The Pacific men's water polo team scored four goals in the fourth quarter and limited Pepperdine to one score en route to a 10-7 come-from-behind win Saturday at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament at USC.
Pacific (13-11) will play fifth-seeded Long Beach State in the tournament's fifth-place game tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. Pepperdine (11-12) will play for seventh place against UC Santa Barbara.
Juniors Balazs Erdelyi and Kevin Oliveira, sophomore Alex Obert and freshman Aleksandar Petrovic all scored two goals apiece for the Tigers. Junior goalkeeper Alex Malkis finished with nine saves in four quarters of work.
Pepperdine opened the scoring just one minute into the match, jumping out to a quick 1-0 lead. The Tigers evened the score at the 5:47 mark as sophomore Sean Grady put away a shot from the wing, but it would be Pacific's only goal of the first frame as the Waves scored twice more to take a 2-1 advantage into the second quarter.
Freshman Aleksandar Petrovic brought the Tigers back to within one, 3-2, at the 4:49 mark only to see Pepperdine convert a penalty shot to regain a two-goal advantage. After drawing an exclusion, sophomore Alex Obert found the back of the cage late in the frame, cutting the Waves' lead to one, 4-3, heading into halftime.
The third quarter would be a back-and-forth affair as neither team was able to gain any considerable momentum. Junior Kevin Oliveira scored a cross-cage goal 30 seconds into the quarter to tie the match at 4-4 but a Pepperdine penalty goal put the Waves back on top. The two squads would trade a pair of goals the rest of the way as Obert's late goal tied the match at 6-6 with one quarter left to play.
Pacific took its first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter as a direct-shot goal from Petrovic put the Tigers up by one, 7-6. After Pepperdine converted their third penalty shot of the game to knot things at 7-7 midway through the period, Oliveira scored on Pacific's ensuing possession to give the Tigers the lead for good. Pacific would hold the Waves scoreless the rest of the way as junior Balazs Erdelyi scored both of the Tigers' late goals to secure a spot in the tournament's fifth-place game.
Pepperdine's Matthew De Trane led all scorers with three goals while Stephen Loomis added two scores. Goalkeeper Bence Valics collected 11 saves.
No. 7 Pacific 10, No. 6 Pepperdine 7
Pacific 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 –– 10
Pepperdine 3 – 1 – 2 – 1 –– 7
Goals
Pacific – Erdelyi 2, Obert 2, Oliveira 2, Petrovic 2, Grady, Oneto
Pepperdine – De Trane 3, Loomis 2, Perry, Sherburne
Goalkeeper Saves
Pacific – Malkis 9
Pepperdine – Valics 11
