SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Trailing by four goals in the third quarter and by three goals in the fourth, the No. 17 Pacific men's water polo program rallied to tie the game with 2:18 remaining, but No. 15 Santa Clara notched the final tallies to survive a 13-11 game Sunday at the Sullivan Aquatic Center.
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Pacific (7-5, 1-1 WCC) was down 8-4 at the 5:46 mark of the third quarter when it managed to trim it to 9-8 heading to the fourth after goals by freshman
Apostolos Georgaras. After Santa Clara (7-6, 1-0 WCC) regained an 11-9 edge with 4:12 left, the Tigers kept pushing and found the 11-11 equalizer by freshman
Borisz Kasa-Gal with 2:18 to go.
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After a defensive stop, the Tigers had the ball with a chance to take the lead but couldn't find the back of the cage. The Broncos scored the go-ahead goal with 54 seconds left, and followed it up with an empty-netter as time expired.
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Georgaras led the offense with a hat trick and an assist. He's up to a team-high 47 goals on the season with at least two in every game.
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A pair of goals each game from Kasa-Gal, sophomore
Ori Buzaglo and freshman
Petar Popovic. Kasa-Gal also dished out two assists. Senior
Manuel Pembertty and sophomore
Yoav Rendler each scored once.
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Freshman goalkeeper
Kiss Gergely played the whole way and made eight saves.
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Pacific is now 34-4 all-time against Santa Clara and have won 16 of the last 18 match-ups.
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The Tigers return to the Eberhardt Aquatics Center for a Homecoming game Saturday against No. 6 San Jose State at noon. Pacific is 12-2 all-time against SJSU and won 14-6 last season on the road.
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Tigers Tickets
Tickets for upcoming events can be purchased through theÂ
PacificTigers.com tickets tab, or by calling the Box Office atÂ
209-946-2474. Groups of 10 or more are eligible for a group discount and exclusive fan experiences.
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