Near upset at UCI

The mission for the No. 8-ranked UC Irvine men’s water polo team is

to improve each week. So far, mission accomplished. A week after

losing 8-5 to No. 3 USC, the host Anteaters opened the Southern

California tournament Saturday morning by defeating ninth-ranked

Loyola Marymount, 10-6. In the afternoon, UCI took No. 1-ranked UCLA

to overtime before succumbing, 9-7.

“Now that was a day of water polo,” Coach Marc Hunt said after

losing a heartbreaker to UCLA.

The Anteaters’ performance against the Bruins showed substantial

improvement over a week ago against the Trojans, particularly on the

power play. UCI was 5 for 8 with the man advantage against UCLA,

including 3 for 3 in the third period.

With the score tied 4-4 midway through the third period, UCLA’s

David Pietsch was called for an exclusion. On the ensuing power play,

UCI swung the ball around from left to right, from Dreason Barry to

Cole Bitter to left-hander Nate White, who slammed the ball home to

give the Anteaters a 5-4 lead with 3:21 left in the third period.

White and Barry led the Anteaters with three goals each.

“White has stepped up this year. He’s confident and maturing as a

player,” Hunt said.

White struck again, trading power play goals with UCLA’s Christian

Pulido, then after another Pietsch exclusion, Cole Bitter took the

ball in deep and skipped it off the water into the goal with one

second left to give UCI a 7-5 lead going into the fourth period.

Goalkeeper Matt Garcia made a point-blank save on 6-foot-4,

235-pound Grant Zider with UCLA on the power play early in the fourth

period. But Garcia (12 saves) and the UCI defense couldn’t hold off

UCLA down the stretch.

Matthew Jacobs scored twice in the fourth period for UCLA,

including one on a breakaway off an outlet pass from John Blanchette

with 46 seconds left in regulation to tie the game 7-7.

With 30 seconds left in regulation after Hunt told Barry to post

up, the 6-foot-9, 225-pound All-American turned his back to the net

and took a pass. He was promptly fouled by Jacobs, giving the

Anteaters a power play with 24 seconds left in regulation. Hunt

called a timeout to set up a play, but Aaron Adams’ shot from the

left side was deflected by UCLA goalkeeper Will Didinger. The ball

floated toward the far post but never made it past the goal line.

UCI looked out of gas in overtime. UCLA’s Grant Zider scored on a

breakaway at 2:36 of the first overtime period. Pietsch added an

insurance goal in the second overtime period. Barry hit a cross bar

in the second extra period for UCI (4-3), but overtime belonged to

UCLA.

“We made little mistakes,” Hunt said. “We threw the ball away a

few times and we gave them some great looks.”

“I think our depth was the biggest thing,” UCLA Coach Adam

Krikorian said. “I don’t think we played particularly well. The key

is we wore them down and got some easy goals in the fourth period and

in overtime.”

Krikorian wasn’t happy about giving up five power play goals, but

knew the Anteaters would come at them strong.

“UCI is big and strong, they always have strong guys,” he said.

“They have two great players, Dreason Barry and Tim Hutten, and they

pushed us around a bit.”

Hutten scored four goals and Barry added a pair in UCI’s victory

over Loyola Marymount.

UCI takes on Pepperdine today at 8 a.m. at the Anteater Aquatics

Complex. If they lose, the Anteaters play at 1 p.m. If the Anteaters

win, they play again at 2:15 p.m.

In the two tournament semifinals today at UCI, UCLA takes on

Stanford at 10:30 a.m. and California plays USC at 11:45 a.m. The

championship game is slated for 4:45 p.m.

Southern California tournament

UC Irvine 10, Loyola Marymount 6

Score by Quarters

*--*

LMU 0 2 1 3 -- 6

UC Irvine 3 1 4 2 -- 10

*--*

LMU -- Reynolds 1, Easton 1, Rex-Kiss 1, Flood 1, Marshall 1,

Hummel 1. Saves -- Elliot 2.

UCI -- Hutten 4, Barry 2, Dunn 1, Merlo 1, White 1, La’O 1. Saves -- Wynne 9.

Southern California tournament

UCLA 9, UC Irvine 7

Score by Periods

*--*

UC Irvine 3 1 3 0 0 0 -- 7

UCLA 2 2 1 2 1 1 -- 9

*--*

UCI -- Barry 3, White 3, Bitter 1. Saves -- Garcia 12.

UCLA -- Pietsch 3, Santos 2, Jacobs 2, Pulido 1, Zider 1. Saves --

Didinger 7.