Long Beach State University
UC San Diego
49ers Split At Day One At NorCal
2/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Sept. 15, 2007
ORNIDA, Calif. - The 49er men's water polo team got off to a good start at the NorCal Tournament, recording a 9-6 win over No. 14-ranked UC San Diego on Saturday morning at the Bill Brown Aquatics Center at Miramonte High School. The ninth-ranked 49ers then dropped their second game of the day, falling to No. 1-ranked USC 10-5. The 49ers are now 5-1 on the season.
In its opener, the 49ers broke open a tight game in the third quarter, expanding a 3-2 halftime lead to 6-3, after out-scoring the Tritons 3-1 in the third quarter. Sophomore Jeff Greenwood, the reigning Mikasa co-MPSF Player of the Week, continued his hot streak by scoring two goals, giving him 18 on the season through the first five games of the season. Junior Jake Kinne also added two goals to the 49er offensive attack. Defensively the 49ers have been outstanding all season and that trend continued as they allowed just six goals to the Tritons. Senior goalie Steve MacKenzie recorded five goalie saves.
Also tallying goals for the 49ers in Saturday's opener were Clint Wilson, Nick Korsgaden, Reid Tomassi, Pavle Filipovic and Kevin Mundia. Daniel Garcia led the Tritons (5-4) with two goals.
Long Beach played tough against the number one ranked team in the country in its afternoon contest, but USC (3-0) proved to have too much firepower and came away with a 10-5 victory. The Trojans, who won their opening game of the tournament 22-0 over UC Santa Cruz, jumped to a 4-2 lead after the first quarter, and pushed the advantage to 6-3 at the half. The third quarter proved to be the pivotal stanza as USC tallied three goals to one for the 49ers. Justin Koeppen scored two goals for Long Beach, with Korsgaden, Ashley Blythen and Sean Greiner each scoring once. MacKenzie tallied three goalie saves. For the Trojans, Matt Sagehorn scored three goals and Tommy Corcoran two.
The 49ers will continue play on Sunday at 8 am at Speiker Pool on the UC Berkeley campus. Long Beach will take on the loser of the Stanford-UC Irvine game which is being played this afternoon at 5:20 pm.
