The UCSB men’s water polo team suffered its second Mountain Pacific Sports Federation setback in as many days, this one a hard-fought 10-9 loss to Pepperdine at Campus Pool in the Gauchos’ regular-season finale.
“I thought we played a great game. We were down a little bit, we fought back I thought we had a lot of momentum and were making some great goals,” UCSB head coach Wolf Wigo said. “Unfortunately, again, we came up on the short end of the stick.”
The Gauchos fell behind 7-3 more than halfway through the second quarter before snapping out of a funk that started in the first quarter of Saturday’s 11-4 loss to UCLA. Senior Miles Price got UCSB back on track, reaching the back of the net from the left side in a man-up situation to pull the Gauchos within three. After a defensive stop, UCSB came right back and Daniel Natalizio found a driving Stefan Partelow for a one-touch redirect that put the halftime score at 7-5.
“As soon as we started to play our game, then we managed a couple of good shots,” said leading-scorer Milos Golic, who added two more goals to his season total of 72.
Senior Dane Lindstrom brought UCSB within one with a third quarter score, but Pepperdine responded with a quick two-goal run to go up 9-6.
The Gauchos didn’t give in, and kept fighting to even up the score a couple of minutes into the fourth quarter. Golic fired a ball past Pepperdine goalie John Hahn into the upper-left corner to keep the rally going, and Natalizio and Jesse Tootell’s scores made it 9-9.
The Waves’ Adam Hewko scored only once on Sunday, but it was the game winner that came with two minutes and 26 seconds remaining. The Gauchos tried desperately to get the equalizer but an ejection with 30 seconds left allowed Pepperdine to play keep away and let the clock run out on UCSB.
“We just played horrible defense the whole game. I mean, 10 goals; it’s too much,” said Golic.
Still, the No. 7 Gauchos (15-10, 4-4) were in position to beat the No. 5 Waves (18-6, 5-2).
“We played well, they played well,” said Wigo. “Despite the fact that we lost, we played a quality game going into playoffs and that’s the most important thing.”
With two weeks until the conference tournament, UCSB must wait to see how the rest of the conference will shake out before knowing their seed. Heading into the weekend, UCSB shared third place with Pepperdine and UCLA with a 4-2 conference record. But after two losses to the Bruins and Waves, UCSB likely will fall into the fifth or sixth spot.
PEPPERDINE 10, UCSB 9
1 2 3 4 Final
Pepperdine 3 4 2 1 10
UCSB 1 4 3 1 9
Pepperdine Goals: Andrew Milcovich 3, Grant Miller 2, Brett Auer 2, Adam Hewko 1, J.P. McDonell 1, Blake Hubbell 1. Goalie Saves: John Hahn 7.
UCSB Goals: Dane Lindstrom 2, Milos Golic 2, Jesse Tootell 1, Daniel Natalizio 1, Stefan Partelow 1, Brian Bishop 1, Miles Price 1. Goalie Saves: Michael Robinson 11.
