The Pepperdine men’s water polo team is heading into next weekend’s Kap7 SoCal Invitational with their heads above water. The Waves will enter the two-day event with a 7-6 record after winning one out of two home contests last weekend.
The Waves are currently ranked ninth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings.
Pepperdine is hosting the 16-team tourney, along with Los Angeles-based Loyola Marymount, on Oct. 10-11.
“Hopefully, that gives us a little bit of an advantage,” Pepperdine head coach Terry Schroeder said.
Pepperdine will face off against UC Irvine at 9:20 a.m. on Saturday. Previously, the Waves were knocked off by the Anteaters during the Sept. 19-20 Kap7 NorCal Invitational by a score of 12-9.
Schroeder said the game against Irvine is huge for Pepperdine.
“They are a solid team, but I think we can get ready and give them a good battle,” the Waves coach of 23 years said.
The Waves head into the invitational a week after defeating the San Jose State Spartans 14-8 at Pepperdine’s Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool.
Senior Marko Asic had four goals to lead Pepperdine. Two of Asic’s goals came late in the first quarter and pushed the Waves lead to 5-1. Junior Mark Urban, redshirt senior Marko Madaras and senior Wesley Sherburne also scored during the quarter.
The Spartans forced their way back into the contest in the second quarter. San Jose State tallied four goals before halftime. However, right before the break, sophomore Kenneth Keller and Sherburne each scored, giving Pepperdine a 7-4 lead.
San Jose State struck first in the third quarter, but goals by Madaras and redshirt senior Luke Hewko gave Pepperdine a 9-6 lead.
The Waves pulled away during the final period due to a pair of scores apiece from Asic and freshman Artak Arumanyan, along with a goal by Hewko.
On defense, sophomore goalkeeper Zack Rhodes had six saves and goalkeeper Philippe Marco, also a sophomore, had two.
Schroeder said that toward the end of the game, Pepperdine completed good scoring opportunities.
“Going down the stretch, we scored on some good six on fives power plays,” he said. “We had a stretch in the game where we were zero for five, but then we scored four in a row and that put the game away.”
The day before, top-ranked UCLA beat Pepperdine 18-8. In the loss, Asic, Keller and Sherburne scored twice. Urban and redshirt junior Brock Leibhardt scored once. Rhodes had eight saves on defense.
The invitational will feature area college water polo squads, including Air Force, Cal, Concordia, Long Beach State, Pacific, Pomona-Pitzer, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and USC.
The winner of the Pepperdine/Irvine game will play the winner of the UCLA/Pomona-Pitzer game at 2:40 p.m. on Saturday. The winner will advance to play on Sunday.
After the tournament, Pepperdine will have eight regular season games left before the MPSF tournament.
Schroeder said the Waves need to play better defense the rest of the season.
“We have not done a very good job of shot blocking or taking individual responsibility of shot blocking,” he said.
The coach said he can count on his team to get in scoring position and draw opportunities for free shots at the goal. “We are going to score enough goals and draw enough exclusions,” he said. “We have a lot of talented guys offensively. We have some guys that move really well and tend to draw those exclusions by just getting in good position.”
Schroeder said Pepperdine has to keep getting better in order to make the postseason.
“Right now, we are ranked ninth, but it’s not an unrealistic goal to be top five,” he said. “We have to just find our groove a little bit. We are hit and miss but we haven’t played our best water polo. I want them to be playing at their best as we go down the stretch.”
