Long Beach State University Athletics
Beach Hosts Top Ranked UCLA On Senior Night
11/4/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
Long Beach, Calif. -
No. 8 Long Beach State will play host in their final home game of the season to the top-ranked UCLA on Sunday, Nov. 8. The match will also be Senior Night for the four seniors on the team: Pavo Ljepopio, Zacchary Kappos, Dimitrios Lappas, and Josh Tice.
The Beach faced UCLA earlier in the season in an exhibition match at the UCLA Invitational, where LBSU dropped the match 13-4.
Last season, Long Beach State upset No.1 UCLA in the second round of the MPSF Tournament in an exciting 5-3 win. That was the Beach's first win against the Bruins since 2003.
Kappos was the leading scorer in the match, scoring two 5-meter penalty shots. Ljepopio had an impressive performance, holding the Bruins to just three goals and blanking them in the fourth quarter. Ljepopio had five saves in the fourth to hang on for the win, and 12 saves total.
ABOUT THE BRUINS
This season, UCLA hangs on to a perfect 22-0 record after defeating No. 2 Pacific last weekend for their 25th-straight victory. The Bruins also hold a 21-0 record in MPSF matches, with their last loss being to Stanford on Oct. 19, 2013. The 25th-straight win streak dates back to last year and is the program's second longest streak. The first was 50 straight wins established from 1964-68.
Bruins' junior Ryder Roberts leads UCLA with 39 goals in the season. Long Beach native Max Irving comes in second with 31 goals. Garrett Danner has played the majority of games for UCLA, grabbing 143 saves in 15 starts. Danner holds a 6.34 GAA (Goals Against Average).
BEACH FACTS
True freshman Keegan Wicken continues to lead the Beach in scoring with after scoring a hat trick last weekend against Stanford. He now has 33 total goals. Redshirt freshmen Austin Stevenson and Chandler Kaltenbach are second in scoring with 23 goals each, and senior Dimitrios Lappas follows with 20 goals in the season.
Nine players (including the four mentioned above) are scoring in double digits for the Beach. Sophomores Lovro Miocevic and Duncan Lynde have 19 and 18 goals, respectively. Jacob Fujioka (13), Lee Griffin (12) and Josh Tice (12) also have double-digit scoring for Long Beach State.
Senior Pavo Ljepopio had an impressive outing last weekend against Stanford, grabbing 11 more big saves to keep his team within reach. Ljepopio has now tallied 188 total saves in the season, averaging 9.13 saves a game. His GAA (Goals Against Average) is 8.85.
UP NEXT
The Beach will play three more matches before the MPSF Tournament (Nov. 20-22). Next week, LBSU will travel to Los Angeles, Calif. to play non-conference team Loyola Marymount at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
On the weekend, the Beach will play MPSF teams No. 2 Pacific and San Jose State. The match against Pacific will be on Saturday, Nov. 14, and the match with SJSU will be on Sunday, Nov. 15. Both games begin at noon.
Players Mentioned
