Long Beach State University Athletics
Beach Will Play Three Road Matches To End Regular Season
11/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Long Beach, Calif. -
No. 8 Long Beach State will look to end its regular season on a high note with three road matches this week. The Beach will travel to Los Angles, Calif. to play Loyola Marymount during the week, then up north to Pacific and San Jose State over the weekend.
FACING THE LIONS
LBSU will play the first of three road matches at non-conference team No. 14 Loyola Marymount (11-11, 4-2 WWPA) on Thursday, Nov. 12 at the Burns Aquatic Center at 3 p.m. This will be the Lions final regular season match before the WWPA Championships, where they will play as the No. 2 seed.
LMU had their eight-game win streak snapped after falling to No. 10 UC Davis last weekend 14-10 in the battle for the top seed in the WWPA Championship Tournament. In that nine-game stretch, senior Milutin Mitrovic led his team with 19 goals. Freshman Dayne Jagga had 18, and redshirt junior Liam Jennis had 16. Redshirt Junior Kirk Wilenius grabbed 76 saves in nine matches.
The Beach played LMU in the Triton Invitational to begin the season, where LBSU came out with an 11-8 win.
LBSU hasn't lost to the Lions since the team's first meeting in 2012, tallying eight straight wins and defeating LMU 10 of the last 11 meetings.
ABOUT THE TIGERS
The Beach will head north over the weekend with their first stop in Stockton, Calif. against No. 2 Pacific (21-3, 7-1 MPSF) on Saturday, Nov. 14. This match will be the Tigers' last regular season match before the MPSF Tournament.
The first meeting between these two teams this season was at the Triton Invitational, where the Beach lost 11-6. LBSU swept the Tigers in both matches last season.
Pacific rose to the second seed in the CWPA Poll in the last four weeks after sporting the fifth seed and later fourth seed for the earlier part of the season. Currently, the Tigers are tied with Cal for the second seed.
Pacific has a very balanced attack with 11 players scoring in double-digits and five players having 38 goals or more. Junior Ben Stevenson leads the team with 52 goals in the season. Sophomore Devon Thumwood has 46 goals, redshirt senior Alex Obert has 45, and senior Krisztian Laczkovics has 40. Redshirt junior rounds the five with his 38 goals in 24 games.
Senior Brady Moore has been the man in the cage for the Tigers, holding a 20-3 record with 254 saves this season and a 6.76 GAA (Goals-Against Average).
Two of the Tigers' three losses came to California earlier in the season, the other to UCLA. In Pacific's match between No. 2 Cal last weekend, the Tigers upended the Bears in a close win 11-10.
With the win, Pacific is assured the number two seed in the MPSF Tournament.
SCOUTING THE SPARTANS
San Jose State (3-22, 0-8 MPSF) will play their final two regular season matches this weekend with a non-conference matchup between Santa Clara on Saturday before hosting LBSU on Sunday.
The Spartans are looking to break their seven-game losing streak with these final two games. San Jose has big offensive potential in them with their last win to Connecticut College where SJSU scored 25 goals in the match.
LBSU has won seven of the eight meetings against the Spartans with the only loss coming in the very first match in 1973 in the NCAA Tournament.
The last meeting was a 23-4 win for the Beach in the PCAA (Pacific Coast Athletes Association) Tournament in 1980.
Sophomore Igor Miljan is the team's leading scorer with 24 goals, and freshman Justin Contreras is second with 22 goals. The Spartans have five other players scoring in double-digits.
Sophomore goalkeeper Matej Matijevic has played the majority of games for SJSU, garnering 227 saves and a 12.40 GAA.
BEACH FACTS TO KNOW
Despite not scoring the last match against UCLA, freshman Keegan Wicken continues to lead the Beach with 33 goals. After the SoCal Tournament, Wicken scored in every match before last week.
Redshirt freshmen Chandler Kaltenbach and Austin Stevenson have kept the second and third spots with 24 and 23 goals, respectively. Senior Dimitrios Lappas stayed in fourth with 20 goals.
Sophomores Lovro Miocevic and Duncan Lynde have 19 and 18 goals, respectively, and Jacob Fujioka, Josh Tice and Lee Griffin have all scored 13 goals.
Senior Pavo Ljepopio will look to go over 200 saves in the season with the three matches this week. Ljepopio currently has 193 saves this season with a 9.04 GAA.
The Beach have split the last eight matches with a key win over No. 9 Pepperdine. Within that span, Wicken has scored 19 goals and Chandler Kaltenbach had 11.
MPSF TOURNAMENT
USC hosts the MPSF Tournament, which will begin next weekend (Nov. 20-22). Currently, UCLA and Pacific has secured the first two seeds in the tournament going into the final regular season week. California and USC are tied (both 6-2 MPSF) for third, and Stanford stands in fifth with a 5-3 MPSF record.
Stanford will have two more matches while USC and California each have one.
This is the schedule for the first day of the MPSF Tournament:
Friday, November 20 (MPSF Quarterfinals @ USC)
Game 1- No. 7 Seed vs. No. 10 Seed (Play-In) 8:30 am
Game 2- No. 8 Seed vs. No. 9 Seed (Play-In) 10:00 am
Game 3- No. 4 Seed vs. No. 5 Seed 11:30am
Game 4- No. 3 Seed vs. No. 6 Seed 1:00pm
Game 5- No. 2 Seed Pacific vs. Game 1 Winner 2:30 pm
Game 6- No. 1 Seed UCLA vs. Game 2 Winner 4:00 pm
UP NEXT
Long Beach State is currently tied with Pepperdine for eighth place in the Tournament. Pepperdine will play two matches, one against UC Irvine and the other against UC Santa Barbara.
The Beach will have the chance to raise their standings with three wins this week before the MPSF Tournament on Friday, Nov. 20 at USC.
Players Mentioned
