Stockton, Calif.- The No. 16 Pacific men's water polo program dropped their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) opener on Saturday Oct. 18., falling to No. 5 ranked Pepperdine 9-4. The loss moved the Tigers to 9-12 overall and 0-1 in the MPSF, while Pepperdine advanced to 14-4 overall, and 3-0 in the MPSF with the win.

Pacific wasted no time in setting the tone early as senior Shane Mahoney (Lodi, Calif.), scored the first goal of the game less then a minute into the contest. The Tigers' defense slowed the Waves down in the beginning, then at the 4:45 mark, Pepperdines' J.P. MacDonell evened the score with a goal of his own. Back and forth the teams went, with strong defense underlying every drive, until once again MacDonell scored with 2:54 remaining in the period.

As time continued to wind down, and the Tigers trailed by one, senior William Milcovich (Walnut Creek, Calif.) decided to take matters in to his own hands. Milcovich made a nice move on the outside to get open at the five meter line, and rifled a shot into the back of the goal, to even the score at 2-2. MacDonell scored once more for the Waves in the final seconds, as the quarter ended with a 3-2 Pepperdine lead.

The second quarter began with a strong defensive effort by both teams, as neither squad made things easy for the other. Pass after pass was deflected by the defense, and both teams struggled to break through and score. A few shots were missed by both sides, until Grant Miller of Pepperdine scored the first goal of the quarter with 2:58 remaining, to give Pepperdine a 4-2 lead. Pepperdine again scored with just over a minute left to play as Jacob Young scored from in front of the goal on the left side, to boost the Waves lead to 5-2 at the half.

The second half started off with a quick score as Matt Digges notched a goal for the Waves, to increase the lead to 6-2 in Pepperdine's favor. After a timeout by Pacific, the Tigers still struggled to find an answer to Pepperdine's offensive push, as Clayton Snyder furthered the gap with his first goal of the game, to make the score 7-2.

The Waves continued to pour it on, as MacDonell notched his fourth goal of the day with less than four minutes left in the third period to again boost the Pepperdine lead to 8-2. The teams battled back and forth for the remainder of the quarter, with Pepperdine holding a 3-0 advantage during the quarter.

The fourth quarter found the Tigers in need of an offensive surge, but the Pepperdine team proved to be too much for Pacific to handle. Andrew Milcovich, younger brother of Pacific's Milcovich, scored his first goal of the game with a little over five minutes remaining to boost the lead to 9-2, Waves. Pacific posted one last effort as freshman Tyler Reardon (Oak Park, Calif.) scored his first of the day with 2:14 left to play, to cut the lead to 9-3. Pacific refused to give up as fellow freshman Adam Huff (Kearns, Utah) scored once more for the Tigers to end the game 9-4, Pepperdine.

 

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
Pepperdine	3	2	3	1	9
Pacific	2	0	0	2	4

 

 

 

 

Pacific is next in action Saturday Oct. 18. at 7pm as they face the No. 20 Cal Baptist Lancers at 7:00pm at Chris Kjeldsen Pool.