STOCKTON, Calif. ---- Fifth-seeded UC Irvine fell to No. 4 seed Pepperdine in the Golden Coast Conference Tournament at Chris Kjeldsen Aquatics Complex in Stockton Friday night.

Bryant Joudrie and Ryan Warde scored three goals each for the Anteaters (9-14) while Jack Trush added two scores.

Joudrie put UCI on the board with 1:08 left in the first quarter on a power play after the Waves had jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

Warde's goal with 7:42 remaining in the second quarter pulled the 'Eaters within 3-2, but Pepperdine scored three straight to extend its lead to 6-2 and the Waves led 7-3 at halftime.

Trush scored UCI's lone goal of the third quarter on a power play with 4:23 left as Pepperdine led 8-4 entering the final period.

The fourth quarter got interesting as Warde drew the 'Eaters within 8-5 on a power-play goal with 6:53 remaining. After the Waves went ahead 9-5, UCI's Brendan Fisher scored with 4:41 left to close the gap to 9-6.

Pepperdine (13-12) scored the next two goals to go up 11-6 before Trush connected at the 2:03 mark to make it 11-7.

Joudrie then completed his hat trick on a goal with 36 seconds remaining and Warde scored his third goal with one second left for the final 11-9 margin.

UCI will face San Jose State in the fifth-place game Saturday at 4:30 p.m.


UC Irvine           1-2-1-5 --- 9
Pepperdine       3-4-1-3 --- 11

UCI: Bryant Joudrie 3, Ryan Warde 3, Jack Trush 2, Brendan Fisher.

Pep: Mark Urban 2, Marko Asic 2, Sean Thomas 2, Mate Toth 2, Cristian Bridley, Kenneth Keller, Sam Paur.

Saves: Matej Matijevic (UCI) 9; Zack Rhodes (Pep) 12.