The No. 8 Long Beach State men’s water polo team is looking to continue its winning ways when it takes on No. 6 UC Irvine at the Anteater Pool Friday at 7 p.m.
Fresh off a three-game winning streak to conclude the NorCal Invitational, the 49ers (5-2) hope to ride the momentum gained from a win over No. 10 Loyola Marymount in the NorCal finale.
LBSU is 5-6 against UCI with Gavin Arroyo as its head coach. The 49ers are looking for their first victory over UCI (5-2) at the Anteater Pool since the 2006 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament.
It will be the teams’ second meeting of the year, and the first to count against their overall records. Much like the 49ers’ contest against MPSF opponent USC earlier this season, the match against the Anteaters will not count towards the conference standings.
The initial games against some of the MPSF teams are being counted as nonconference games because it would take 16 games to play a full schedule of home and away games within the conference. There are only 21 play dates for the entire season.
Despite the lack of prestige with the game being a nonconference affair, Arroyo has his way of keeping his players focused.
“I keep their intensity up by telling them that their ranking is on the line,” Arroyo said.
The Anteaters took the first meeting between these two teams in a scrimmage at UCI. The game was only three quarters long, and UCI won, 7-5.
The 49ers looked more than capable of hanging with their MPSF rival in that game, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before UCI made a startling comeback in the last two periods.
One addition to the LBSU lineup from the last time the two teams played each other will be Dan Matulis.
At 6-foot-11, Matulis is by far the lengthiest member of the 49ers squad. The Beach has yet to lose a game in which the freshman has played. Matulis, initially a redshirt for this season, joined the team after injuries sustained at the NorCal tournament left some roster spots to be filled.
All the injuries are considered to be short term, and the team is looking forward to being completely healthy in the next couple of weeks, Arroyo said.
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