MPSF Tournament Central
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Trent Baxter scored the game-winning goal 32 seconds into sudden victory overtime to lift No. 7-seed UC Irvine to a 10-9 win over No.-8 seed Pacific in the MPSF Tournament's fifth-place match on Sunday afternoon at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center.
Baxter finished with a game-high four goals for UC Irvine (17-12). The Anteaters also received three goals from Mitch Wise, two from Nick Pfeil and one from Sam Figueroa.
Pacific (13-13) was led by Goran Tomasevic's three goal effort. Daniel Lungu and Alex Obert also tallied two goals for the Tigers in their final match of the season.
Baxter's game-winning goal came after each team scored one goal in both of the previous three-minute overtime sessions. The game was deadlocked, 7-7, after regulation. Pacific took the first lead in overtime, at 8-7, on an extra-man goal from Tomasevic with 1:51 to play. Baxter countered for UC Irvine with an extra-man goal at 1:32.
In the second overtime period, Lungu scored with 1:09 to play, putting Pacific ahead of UC Irvine, 9-8.
After UC Irvine called a timeout with 38 seconds left, Figueroa tied the contest, 9-9, with his first and only goal of the day for the Anteaters.
The game was closely-contested throughout regulation. UC Irvine led Pacifi c at halftime, 5-4. Neither team scored in the third quarter. UC Irvine pushed its margin to 6-4 with a goal from Pfeil just 31 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Pacific rallied by scoring the next three goals to secure a 7-6 cushion. The Tigers' three consecutive goals came from Tomasevic (6:01), Lungu (3:52) and Erdelyi (2:24).
UC Irvine tied the game with just 28 seconds remaining in regulation on a strike from Wise.
UC Irvine goalkeeper Jimmy Friedrich finished with six saves. Pacific's Alex Malkis netted 15 stops in the cage.
UC Irvine finishes its campaign with a 17-12 mark.
UC Irvine 10, Pacific 9 (SV-OT)
1 2 3 4 OT OT OT F
Pacific 2 2 0 3 1 1 0 9
UC Irvine 1 4 0 2 1 1 1 10
Pacific Goals: Goran Tomasevic 3, Daniel Lungu 2, Alex Obert 2, Balazs Erdelyi, Tom Koning
Pacific Saves: Alex Malkis 15
UC Irvine Goals: Trent Baxter 4, Mitch Wise 3, Nick Pfeil 2, Sam Figueroa
UC Irvine Saves: Jimmy Friedrich 6
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