Long Beach State University
Stanford
Water Polo Drops Tournament Opening Round Match to Stanford
11/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Nov. 28, 2008
MALIBU, Calif.-- Heading into the MPSF Tournament with a seventh-seed, No. 8 Long Beach State lost to No. 2 Stanford in its opening round match-up of the MPSF Tournament hosted by Pepperdine Univeristy in Malibu, Calif.
Heading into the match, Long Beach State (14-16, 2-7) was 0-1 against the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal (23-4, 7-2), and the 49ers were looking for revenge. Stanford had victory on the mind, however, and scored the first goal of the game at the 4:28 mark. Forty-niner Jeff Greenwood tied the game half a minute later, which turned out to be the only tie of the game. After the Cardinal scored another goal to finish out the first period, Stanford dominated the second with 5 goals, and holding Long Beach State to 0. At the half, the Cardinal were up 7-1.
Stanford opened the second half with the same dominant play, notching two more goals, and the Beach found themselves faced with a 1-9 defecit. The 49ers didn't give up, however, and senior Ash Blythen stepped up for his squad to notch 3 goals all with 2 minutes or fewer left in the period.
Blythen stayed on course in the fourth, scoring the first goal of the quarter; with the shot, the 49ers cut the Cardinal's lead to 10-5. The Cardinal and the 49ers traded goals for the rest of the game, including a shot from Jake Kinne and Blythen's fifth goal of the game. Stanford had the last word with a a goal at 1:23 left in the match, and the second-ranked Cardinal walked away from the opening round match-up with a 13-7 victory.
With the loss, Long Beach State will go on to face either UC Santa Barbara (15-10, 4-4) or Pepperdine (19-6, 6-2) tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. PT at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool at Pepperdine.
SCORES BY PERIOD:
LBSU: 1-0-3-3 --- 7
STANFORD: 2-5-3-3 --- 13
LBSU GOALS: Blythen 5, Greenwood, Kinne
LBSU GOALIE SAVES: Wiebe-Bailey 9
