Stockton, Calif. - Ben Stevenson scored four goals and Sean Grady's third of the game was the sudden-victory game-winner as the No. 6 Pacific men's water polo team downed No. 10 UC Davis, 11-10, in overtime Sunday at Chris Kjeldsen Pool.
Kale Ai added two goals while Krisztian Laczkovics and Ikko Saito also scored for Pacific. Chris Hughes made 11 saves in the cages as Pacific improves to 4-1 overall.
Grady drew an exclusion on a UC Davis defender late in the sudden victory, and finished off a pass from Ai to give the Tigers their seventh-straight regular season home win.
UC Davis got on the board first as Teddy Nicholson snuck one past Tiger keeper Chris Hughes on the Aggies first shot. But Pacific reeled off five straight goals, as Hughes kept Davis at bay.
Grady knotted things up with a 6-on-5 goal from the outside, and late in the first quarter, Ai put Pacific up 2-1. Stevenson closed the quarter with another 6-on-5 goal. In the second, Stevenson opened the scoring by beating Davis goalkeeper Spencer Creed, and Krisztian Laczkovics stretched the lead to 5-1 before Davis answered. Lyle Kipp snuck a goal inside the near post to cut the gap to 5-2, but Ai responded by ripping home his second at the 4:57 mark.
Just 14 seconds into the third quarter, UC Davis cut the gap to 6-3, as Sean Grab started a run of three-straight Aggies goals. Grab brought the Aggies within two at the 3:56 mark with his second of the game, and Jacob Ley's goal cut the gap to one. Following a saved five-meter penalty by Decker, the Aggies' knotted the game at 6-6 on Grab's third score of the period.
Ikko Saito put Pacific back out in front with the shot clock dwindling, skipping a shot from the outside in for the 7-6 advantage.
Opening the third quarter, Austin Beckwith tied the game at 7-7 with a goal for the Aggies on their first possession. After Pacific hit the post, Nicholson gave UC Davis the lead at the 5:49 mark, sneaking a shot inside the near post.
Stevenson tied the game at 8-8 with 4:37 to go, ripping a shot into the back of the cage for the hat-trick goal. Pacific killed off a UC Davis 6-on-5 by intercepting a pass, but Laczkovics' shot was field blocked at the other end.
Pacific posted a stop on defense, but the Tigers were called for a ball-under amid traffic. Hughes deflected a lob shot over the bar with 1.1 seconds left, and then thwarted a last-second shot.
Max Vigeant put UC Davis up one, finishing a feed in the five meter, but the Tigers responded with a 6-on-5 goal from Grady to tie the game at 9-9 just 19 seconds later. After a Pacific stop, the Tigers drew an exclusion, but drilled the right post with the shot and couldn't corral the rebound.
Hughes posted a save on the Aggies last attempt of the first OT session, and the Tigers couldn't get a shot off in their abbreviated five-second possession.
Stevenson struck from a sharp angle, blasting home a goal at the 2:16 mark for a 10-9 Pacific lead. Hughes posted a save on the ensuing Aggies possession.
But with 18 seconds left, Nicholson snuck one by to tie the game yet again at 10-10. The Tigers drew the exclusion, but Laczkovics' shot was deflected high.
Both teams came up empty on their first possessions of the sudden victory overtime. Hughes stopped a shot from inside the five meter line, but Creed made a save on a low-angle shot at the other end.
Grady drew a UC Davis ejection, and then ripped a shot inside the near post from inside the two meter for the game-winner with 28 seconds left on the period clock.
Creed finished with 12 saves for UC Davis. The Aggies fall to 1-5
The two teams with meet again in the Kap7 NorCal Classic, next Saturday at 9:20 a.m. in the second game of the day at Kjeldsen Pool.
