Junior goalkeeper Derek Wiebe-Bailey and men’s water polo head coach Gavin Arroyo echoed the same message about Saturday afternoon’s victory over UC Irvine.
“We want to peak at the end of the season,” Arroyo said.
No. 7 Long Beach State defeated the No. 10 Anteaters, 7-4, on Senior Day at the 49er Campus Pool.
Trailing 2-0 with 1:08 left in the first half, senior Ashley Blythen sprinted out after a UCI miss and Wiebe-Bailey leaked out a pass to him, which he converted into a goal with 1:00 before the break.
Senior Kevin vanHaaster did the same thing just 39 seconds later and tied the score with a lob over goalkeeper Matt Johnson.
“[We were] able to respond down a couple goals and kept it together defensively,” vanHaaster said. “The game is so short that it’s an important game of momentum and we took that into the second half.”
The 49ers (14-15, 2-6 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) carried the momentum into the second half, scoring three more goals to cap a 5-0 run.
Junior Jeff Greenwood opened the attack with an assist from Justin Koeppen. With 5:15 remaining in the third quarter, senior Jake Kinne skipped in a goal from straightaway. Koeppen closed the run with a goal of his own to put LBSU ahead, 5-2.
With the 49ers ahead 5-3, UCI opened the fourth with a goal by junior Greg Enloe to cut the deficit to one. LBSU responded with goals from senior Pavle Filipovic and Blythen, who again sprinted out after anticipating a UCI attempt.
“It’s about anticipation,” vanHaaster said. “If you can anticipate, defensively, what they’re going to do, then that turns into offense. We did a good job of that today.”
The scoreless first quarter wasn’t anything like the final three quarters, as both teams failed to capitalize on opportunities.
“I think we were kind of running and gunning a little bit [in the first half],” Arroyo said. “We had opportunities and we weren’t making them. Neither team was executing.
“I don’t think we found our comfort zone in that first quarter. Once they got into their rhythm and started to relax a little bit, they started executing collectively instead of one guy trying to do it.”
Defensively, Wiebe-Bailey silenced the Anteater attack with 11 saves, including six in the first half. The junior was able to deflect or completely stop numerous point-blank opportunities in front of the goal. In the teams’ previous two meetings this season, UCI scored in double digits including a 12-goal effort on Oct. 22.
“That’s just being in the zone, having all that adrenaline and just being so pumped up for this game because of our seniors,” Wiebe-Bailey said. “You just want to get a win for them, so this game is for them.”
Kinne, Filipovic, vanHaaster, Blythen and Mike Del Grande were honored before their final home.
The four-goal total was the second-lowest allowed by the ‘Niners this season. LBSU allowed just two goals to Pomona-Pitzer on Sept. 28.
The 49ers have won three of their last four and will enter the MPSF Tournament as the No. 7 seed against No. 2 Stanford. The tournament begins Friday at 11:30 a.m. in Malibu
Coupled with a 13-6 win over Pacific on Nov. 16, Arroyo liked the way LBSU closed the regular season.
“We need to take the momentum into the MPSF Tournament,” he said.
Not very often have we seen something good come from Gavin’s guys against a big-name opponent, so it was welcome news see us stay in the running to take back the surfboard. Well done.