UC Irvine
Pepperdine
UC Irvine Edged by Pepperdine, 11-10, in MPSF Action
October 14, 2011 | Men's Water Polo
IRVINE, Calif. --- Seventh-ranked UC Irvine staged a late rally in the fourth quarter that fell just short in an 11-10 loss to Pepperdine in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game at Anteater Pool Friday night.
The Waves' Spencer Hamby scored his third goal of the game with 7:23 remaining for an 11-8 lead before goals by UCI's Max Parrague (4:49) and Mitch Wise (:49) cut the margin to one. A shot on goal by UCI with five seconds left was knocked away by Pepperdine goalie Bence Valics to preserve the win for the Waves.
Eighth-ranked Pepperdine led 4-3 after one quarter but UCI's Trent Baxter converted a power-play goal with 6:02 left in the second period to knot the score at 4-4.
An extra-man goal by the Waves' Andrew Milcovich with 5:36 remaining in the half put Pepperdine up 5-4 before Nick Pfeil countered with a goal for UCI at the 4:06 mark to tie the game at 5-5 at intermission.
Pepperdine outscored UCI, 5-3, in the third quarter.
After James Perry had given the Waves a 7-6 lead at the 6:33 mark, Pfeil scored again for the 'Eaters with 5:22 left in the quarter to draw UCI even at 7-7.
Nick Cooper then scored back-to-back goals at 4:47 and 3:54 to put Pepperdine up 9-7.
Baxter hit a power-play goal with 3:34 left in the quarter to pull the 'Eaters within 9-8 but Colin Carroll scored with 1:32 remaining to give the Waves a 10-8 lead entering the final period.
Wise led UCI (12-8, 0-3 MPSF) with a game-high four goals and he leads the team with 56 on the season. Parrague, Pfeil and Baxter added two each while Jimmy Friedrich had five saves in goal.
Hamby scored three goals to lead Pepperdine (9-6, 1-1) while Valics had seven saves.
UCI is idle from competition for the next two weeks before traveling to Pacific Oct. 29 and California Oct. 30.
Pepperdine 4 – 1 – 5 – 1 --- 11
UC Irvine 3 – 2 – 3 – 2 --- 10
Pep: Spencer Hamby 3, Andrew Milcovich 2, James Perry 2, Nick Cooper 2, Stephen Loomis, Colin Carroll.
UCI: Mitch Wise 4, Max Parrague 2, Nick Pfeil 2, Trent Baxter 2.
Saves: Bence Valics (Pep) 7; Jimmy Friedrich (UCI) 5.
Records: Pepperdine 9-6, 1-1 MPSF; UCI 12-8, 0-3 MPSF
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