The season mercifully came to an end for the No. 9 Long Beach State men’s water polo team Saturday as No. 4 Pacific beat the 49ers 15-10 on senior day at the Campus Pool.
The loss capped a winless season for The Beach within the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, and it extended the 49ers’ losing streak to 9 games.
LBSU (7-15, 0-8 MPSF) will have 9 months to figure out where they went wrong this year.
“We had been hoping to make the MPSF Tournament,” junior Alexsandr Petrovic said.
Petrovic added that the team had been banking on winning matches against Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara earlier this season to help the 49ers make a tournament appearance.
LBSU head coach Gavin Arroyo hinted that change is going to have to come from within his own locker room next season.
“I don’t think the conference schedule is going to change much,” Arroyo said.
One major difference next year will be experience. The Beach will have six seniors for the 2011 campaign.
Patrick van der Linde was the lone senior on this year’s roster, and he spent a total of two seasons with the 49ers.
Before the game, van der Linde’s name was announced and he was presented with gifts of appreciation from the team and his coach. Arroyo also thanked van der Linde for his time with the team.
“I was very glad for that,” van der Linde said. “I appreciate that they did something for me as a senior.”
As it turned out, it would be a very special ending for the senior, who recorded his first career hat trick in his final game as a 49er.
“I played good and had some good shots,” said van der Linde of his three-goal performance. “We did not play our best defensive game.”
Pacific’s 15 goals were the most by a 49ers opponent other than No. 2 USC, which had twice surpassed the 15-goal mark in nonconference matches.
The all-too-frequent pattern of falling behind early plagued LBSU again in Saturday’s finale.
After Petrovic scored the game’s opening goal for the 49ers, The Beach was held scoreless for the rest of the quarter as the Tigers, led by junior Tom Koning, scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead at the end of the frame.
In the second quarter, junior Taylor Clute got the 49ers close when he was able to wait out the Tigers’ goalkeeper for the second LBSU goal. Pacific, however, looked like they were going to run away with the game when they opened a 6-2 advantage on the 49ers midway through the period.
The Beach responded with two goals from van der Linde and one from freshman Dan Matulis to close the gap to 7-5 before halftime.
The Tigers (16-9, 4-4 MPSF) retook a four-goal lead with two goals to open the third period. Petrovic brought the 49ers back within striking distance with back-to-back goals that cut the Pacific lead to 9-7.
Pacific halted the LBSU comeback with two goals 37 seconds apart, including a Hail Mary shot that appeared to catch 49er goalkeeper Matt Kubeck by surprise as he remained motionless when the ball descended into the far corner of the goal.
“It’s hard coming back from that,” van der Linde said.
The last-minute defensive lapse in the third quarter put the 49ers in a situation where they had to mount a major comeback in the fourth quarter, instead of only being down two scores going into the final frame.
LBSU scored three times in the fourth quarter, but it never got within than three goals of the Tigers. Sophomore Carter Taylor and Matulis joined the already ejected Jordan Koeppen with their third exclusions in the period. The Tigers added four goals of their own, including Koning’s fifth goal of the game.
The 49ers will now have missed the MPSF tournament for the second consecutive season.
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