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UC Irvine Hosts Cal, Pacific in Key MPSF Clashes
November 01, 2012 | Men's Water Polo
Coach Marc Hunt Q&A at NCAA.com
GAME #22
#9 UC Irvine (14-7, 0-4 MPSF) vs. #6 California (10-7, 1-3 MPSF)
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012 – 7:00 p.m.
Anteater Aquatics Complex – Irvine, Calif.
GAME #23
#9 UC Irvine vs. #7 Pacific (9-7, 0-2 MPSF)
Friday, Nov. 2, 2012 – 7:00 p.m.
Anteater Aquatics Complex - Irvine, Calif.
STORYLINE
● UC Irvine, in need of victories in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, hosts California Thursday night and Pacific Friday evening. UCI is 0-4 in the MPSF with four conference games remaining, Cal is 1-3 and Pacific 0-2. The top eight teams in the nine-member league advance to the MPSF Tournament at USC Nov. 23-25.
● Friday night versus Pacific is the 'Eaters' home finale for the season and is Senior Night. Seniors Kyle Adama, Winston Newland, Nick Pfeil and Brian Pickford will be recognized prior to the game.
QUICK HITS
● Junior Bojan Hrlec leads UCI with 56 goals and he ranks fifth in the MPSF with an average of 2.67 goals per game. He scored a high of six goals in the Sept. 9 win over Pomona-Pitzer.
● Junior Mitch Wise, who has scored 51 goals on the season, ranks seventh in the MPSF at 2.43 goals per game. He scored five goals each in the first three games of the season.
● Senior Nick Pfeil has scored 27 goals this season with a high of four in the Sept. 1 win over Redlands. He ranks 21st in the MPSF at 1.29 goals per game.
● Sophomore Jacob Mourer has 24 goals, with a high of four in the season-opening victory over Chapman Sept. 1.
● Senior Winston Newland has scored 20 goals this year, including hat tricks in wins over Pacific and Occidental.
● Sophomore Alan Robertson also has a pair of hat tricks this season and has scored 20 goals.
● Redshirt freshman Chris Swieca has scored 18 goals this season with a high of three in the win over Cal Lutheran at the Gary Troyer Tournament.
● Junior goalie Alex Kazmier has 133 saves this season with a high of 17 in the Sept. 16 overtime win over UC Santa Barbara in the fifth-place game of the NorCal Tournament. He ranks sixth in the MPSF with an average of 9.94 saves per game.
● Redshirt sophomore goalie Dylan Peterson has recorded 48 saves this season.
● Sophomore Michael Bailey has 30 saves in nine appearances this season.
● UCI and Cal split in earlier games this season. The Bears won 14-7 at the NorCal Tournament Sept. 15 and the 'Eaters prevailed 13-11 in the SoCal Tournament Sept. 29.
● In the only previous meeting this season, UCI defeated Pacific, 11-10, at the NorCal Tournament.
● UCI's MPSF game at UCLA Nov. 18 has a new start time of 10:30 a.m. and will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
ON THE HORIZON
● Coach Marc Hunt's UCI squad, following this week's action, has three regular-season games remaining, all on the road. The 'Eaters travel to UC San Diego for a non-conference game Nov. 9, then finish MPSF play at Long Beach State Nov. 11 and UCLA Nov. 18.
