Waves Water Polo Wins Three of Five Matches

The Pepperdine men’s water polo team won three games out of five during a recent three-day period. The Waves defeated San Jose State, Redlands and Whittier in the Sept. 16-17 Aggie Roundup at UC Davis, but fell to the host team.

Pepperdine, ranked eighth in the Collegiate Water Polo Association national poll at press time, was defeated by top-ranked California a day before the four-team event.

Marko Asic, a junior, led 12-2 Pepperdine in scoring with 12 goals in the five games. The three-year star player now has a team-leading 31 goals. 

Pepperdine defeated San Jose State, 10-4, in their first game of the Aggie Roundup. Asic and Chris Dilworth, another junior, each scored a pair of goals to lead the Waves on offense, and senior goal keeper Zach Rhodes had 14 saves on defense.

The contest was 2-2 at the end of the first quarter. Pepperdine led 4-2 at halftime, then blew the game open in the third quarter with three more goals. The Waves scored four times in the last period. 

Pepperdine knocked-off Redlands, 13-1, in their next game. Asic scored four goals and senior Kenneth Keller had a hat trick. Junior Artak Arzumanyan and senior Mark Urban had two goals apiece. Rhodes had eight saves and senior Philippe Marco recorded six.

UC Davis, ranked ninth, beat Pepperdine, 7-5, on the second day of the event. Five different Waves scored in the loss. 

Pepperdine beat Whittier, 18-5, to close the Aggie Roundup. Asic had four goals and Dilworth scored three times. Olsen, Mate Toth and Arzumanyan all had two scores. Marco had 15 saves. 

Dilworth had two goals for Pepperdine in their Sept. 15, 8-6 loss to the number one team in the country, Cal. The game was 3-3 at halftime, but the host Golden Bears outscored Pepperdine 3-1 in the third period. Toth scored late in the game to cut the Golden Bears’ lead to 7-6, but Cal scored once more at the buzzer to seal the win. 

Pepperdine will next play UC Davis on Friday in the MPSF Invite at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. The Waves also will have MPSF Invite contests on Saturday and Sunday at USC.