The Long Beach State men’s water polo team suffered back-to-back losses but persevered to leave on a positive note in the NorCal tournament this weekend.
In their most challenging tournament of the season so far, the 49ers (9-3) were pushed to the limits of exhaustion and concentration on both Saturday and Sunday in Berkeley in winning and losing efforts.
After defeating No. 8 Loyola Marymount 13-9 on Saturday in their first match, the ‘Niners faced No. 4 Cal later in the afternoon.
The Bears were able to jump out to an early first quarter lead 4-1 right off the bat and then extend it by going into halftime up 8-3.
“We weren’t really in our groove, we were tentative at times,” junior Devin Mefford said.
The ‘Niners were able to rally back in the second half, scoring seven goals, including two from sophomore Dimitrios Lappas, who led the way in scoring for the ‘Niners with three goals for the. Unfortunately for The Beach, the surge was not enough to diminish a comfortable lead built up by Cal. The final score saw Cal get the win 15-10.
The ‘Niners went on to play UC Santa Barbara in their first match on Sunday, and the game turned out to be one of the most exciting of the whole tournament.
After being down for the entire game, the 49ers came back with only minutes left on the clock in the fourth quarter to tie it at 4. Then, with only seconds remaining, UCSB’s Matt Gronow was able to score, giving the Gauchos a 5-4 win.
The loss was a hard one to swallow for the 49ers, especially after coming so close to being on the winning end.
“We’re still contenders no matter what and not going to go down without a fight,” Mefford said, looking back on the weekend’s tough losses.
Instead of dwelling on the loss, LBSU was forced to turn its focus toward its final match of the tournament against 10th-ranked Pepperdine.
LBSU battled from behind against the Waves for much of the first half before it was able to knot the score at four apiece going into halftime.
In the third quarter LBSU fell behind again and ended up going into the fourth period down 5-6.
The ‘Niners were able to tie the game 6-6 after a goal from sophomore Nolan McConnell at the beginning of the fourth.
LBSU then showed poise on defense as it held Pepperdine to a scoreless fourth quarter. The Beach added three more goals and ultimately came out on top with a 9-6 win over Pepperdine.
Senior Carter Taylor led LBSU in the match with three goals. However, the X-factor came in LBSU’s ability to shut down the Waves offensively in the fourth quarter.
“Our defense today was pretty good,” Mefford said. “We kept two MPSF teams to low scores in both games.”
While the 49ers certainly would have enjoyed leaving Berkeley with a record better than 2-2, they showed resilience in capping the weekend off with a convincing win.
“It showed our strength as a team to be able to come back after losing on the last play of the game in the morning,” sophomore Ricardo Guimares said.
LBSU will now look to carry the momentum of the win into its home opener against Princeton on Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Campus Pool.
