LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The No. T-9 UC Irvine men's water polo team survived a late comeback from No. 16 Loyola Marymount to secure a 12-11 win at Burns Aquatics Center.
 
Freshman Harrison Land stopped a five-meter penalty shot with two minutes left to play to preserve the one-goal victory for the Anteaters.
 
UCI improves to 4-2 on the season while LMU drops to 1-5 overall.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
> Land made nine saves and two steals in 32 minutes of action
> Zlatan Nikocevic finished with a career-high five goals
> Evezard had a hat trick scoring three goals
> Carson Arnett, Chad Gornay, Daniel Norman and Ian Fleenor each added a goal
> The shot count was even at 30 per team while UCI went 1-5 on powerplays and the Lions finished 1-9 in extra man situations
> The 'Eaters also scored on a five-meter penalty
> LMU's David Carrasco tallied five goals
 
TURNING POINTS
Quarter One
> The Lions took an early 2-0 lead with 3:13 remaining
> Evezard and Nikocevic scored back-to-back goals to knot the game 2-2 (2:51)
> Nikocevic and Norman rounded out the quarter with a goal apiece to make it 4-2
 
Quarter Two
> UCI out-scored LMU 5-3 in the quarter to go up 9-5 at halftime
> Arnett, Nikocevic and Gornay fired in three-straight goals to end the quarter on a 3-0 run


Quarter Three
> The Anteaters came out hot in the third quarter adding two-consecutive goals from Evezard and Nikocevic, respectively
> The Lions would score three times to finish the frame to make it a 12-8 game
 
Quarter Four
> LMU held the 'Eaters scoreless in the final quarter but UCI held on to secure the 12-11 win
> Land's penalty save prevented the Lions from a game-tying opportunity at 2:00 minutes
 
HEAD COACH MARC HUNT ON THE WIN
"Zlatan had some great shots. It allowed us to really stretch a lead in the first half and into the third. Credit to LMU, they made a strong run coming down the wire in the fourth and we held on. Defensively we need to be much more careful with our fouls. We need to do a better job at finishing out with a stronger attack. Harrison came up huge with a penalty save late in the fourth that preserved the win."

UP NEXT
> UCI plays at local rival Concordia Irvine Friday, Sept. 20 at 1:30 p.m.