No. 13 UCI Falters Against No. 12 Pepperdine

Sunday, September 26

Berkeley, Calif.

11:30 AM

UC Irvine

Pepperdine

No. 13 UCI Falters Against No. 12 Pepperdine

September 26, 2021 | Men's Water Polo

By: Sarah Zetlmeisl

BERKELEY, Calif. – No. 13 UC Irvine men's water dropped its final game of the MPSF Invitational to No. 12 Pepperdine by a score of 18-10, Sunday morning at Legends Aquatic Center.

UCI falls to 6-5 on the season while PU improves to 7-7 overall. The Anteaters went 1-4 at the three-day invite.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
> Tyler Padua, Casey Lynton and Zlatan Nikocevic each finished with two goals
> Dylan Patist, Jake Liechty, Grant Chiponis and Stewart Campbell had one goal apiece
> Zayd Mahmoud and Harrison Land split time in goal. Mahmoud played the first three quarters finishing with nine saves while Land saw action in the final eight minutes, grabbing one save
> The Waves' Sean Ferrari tallied three goals while John Claude Marco made 17 stops in the cage
> UCI went 2-of-9 on powerplays while PU finished 3-of-9. The 'Eaters held a 34-32 shot advantage

QUARTER ONE
> Lynton got on the board first before the Waves tied it up, 1-1, at 5:26
> Nikocevic, Padua and Lynton each fired in a goal to give the 'Eaters a 4-2 edge with 3:08 remaining
> PU would knot the game, 4-4, before Liechty scored to give UCI a 5-4 advantage at 1:03
> The Waves added an equalizer at 38 seconds and scored again with two seconds remaining to go up, 6-5

QUARTER TWO
> Chiponis fired in a goal for the 'Eaters at 7:17 before PU scored to straight to make it, 9-6, with 4:34 to play
> Padua tallied a goal at 4:11 to cut the lead, 9-7, but the Waves used a 3-0 scoring run to take a 12-7 advantage into the intermission

QUARTER THREE
> Pepperdine came out firing after the break, scoring four-straight to surge to a 16-7 lead with 1:47 to play
> Campbell would find the back of the net at 1:32 to cut the lead, 16-8

QUARTER FOUR
> The Waves extended their advantage, 18-8, with 4:23 left to play
> Patist and Nikocevic would each score late but it wasn't enough as Pepperdine earned the 18-10 victory

UP NEXT
> UCI returns home to host Westcliff Thursday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m.