LOS ANGELES — The No. 8 Long Beach State men’s water polo placed eighth in the SoCal Tournament after the 49ers lost games to No. 4 Stanford and No. 7 Pacific at the UCLA Spieker Aquatics Center on Sunday.
The Beach (6-6) narrowly missed out on pulling off the upset against Stanford (6-4), losing 9-8 in the opening game of the day. It was as close as LBSU has come to beating a top-5 program this year.
“We want to be in a position where we are competing every time out,” LBSU head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “As long as we’re doing that, I’ll be satisfied.”
The 49ers held a lead as late as the midway point of the third quarter after Taylor Clute’s power play goal to open the second half put the Beach on top, 4-3. The Cardinal evened the score with a goal from Paul Rudolph at the 3:54 mark of the third period.
Stanford closed out the third quarter with a 6-4 lead and extended its advantage to 8-4 in the early stages of the fourth period as part of a 5-0 Cardinal run.
LBSU came storming back with three goals in four minutes, capped by a Dan Matulis power play goal off the near side post to cut the deficit to 8-7.
Stanford retaliated with an outlet pass to Jacob Smith, who broke in on goal, drew a foul and converted the resulting penalty shot to double the Cardinal lead.
On the 49ers’ ensuing possession, The Beach drew two exclusions on the Cardinal and Matulis struck again on the two-man-advantage to bring the 49ers within one.
LBSU got the stop it needed, but was turned away on offense when a Nick Rascon pass to the middle was intercepted and Stanford ran out the clock.
In the game, Matt Kubeck recorded nine saves on 18 shots. Matulis led the team in scoring with three goals and Clute added two goals in the loss.
The 49ers needed more out of their power play unit, as LBSU finished just 3-for-9 with the man advantage.
The Beach lost to Pacific (8-4) in the seventh-place game, 13-7. Pacific ran away with the game when they put together a string of four consecutive goals in a game that was tied at 2 with under a minute left to play in the first quarter.
The Tigers closed out the first half with an 8-4 lead and expanded their lead to 12-5 after three quarters.
Rascon and Matulis tallied two goals apiece, while Robert Robinson, Alexsandr Petrovic and Clute each had one goal for the Beach.
The 49ers have now completed their 2010 tournament schedule. LBSU assistant coach Kyle Gorham noted that the team has played well through the tournament season, but that everything boils down to how the team does in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.
“We have two really important games to open conference play at home against Irvine and Pepperdine,” Gorham said. “These games are everything for us.”
The Beach will go on the road to face the No. 14 UC San Diego Tritons Friday. Game time is set for 6 p.m.
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