This Thursday, the Long Beach State (6-6, 0-1) men’s water polo squad will travel to Irvine to take on No. 9 UC Irvine (9-5, 0-0). On Saturday, the 49ers conclude their eight game road trip with the No. 1 team in the country, the Trojans of USC. The Trojans earned the top spot in the Collegiate Water Polo Association weekly poll this week after winning the UCI Invitational last weekend.
THIS WEEK: After a busy weekend at the UCI Invitational, the 49ers must now gear up to take on No. 9 UC Irvine and No.1 USC (16-1, 3-0). The Beach is 0-1 against the Trojans this season and 1-1 against UCI, falling 12-3 and 9-8 to USC and UCI in the first two games of the season. The Beach beat UCI in their home-opener, 8-7, when Justin Koeppen scored a goal with 1:08 remaining in the game to finish off a furious comeback for the 49ers. Long Beach State travels on Thursday, October 15t to UC Irvine at 7:00 p.m. at the Anteater Pool and then is on the road again against USC for a game Saturday, October 17 at 11a.m., at the McDonald’s Swim Stadium.
LAST WEEKEND at the UCI Invitational: The 49er squad took sixth place at the very competitive tournament hosted by UC Irvine last weekend. In fact, the top-five final places determined at the tournament directly correlate to this week’s Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) National Poll. USC, who took the UCI Invitational crown, is No.1, followed by No. 2 Cal, No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 UCLA, and No. 5 Pepperdine.
The Beach fared well at the tournament, splitting its games to go 2-2 on the weekend. On Saturday morning, the 49ers beat No. 13 Navy, 9-8, but lost to UCLA 16-6 in the afternoon match. Sunday’s matches included a 10-9 victory over No. 8 UCSB followed by a 12-11 sudden-victory loss to No. 5 Pepperdine.
Especially impressive last weekend were 49er seniors Jeff Greenwood and Derek Wiebe-Bailey, Greenwood scored 10 goals in four games, including three goals in the win against Navy and two goals in the win against UC Santa Barbara. Wiebe-Bailey recorded a 2009 MPSF single-game high 18 saves in the sudden-victory game vs. Navy and had 36 saves total at the UCI Invitational.
Reports From LBSU