Beach
water polo season ends in MPSF tournament
Team loses fifth place game and was eliminated
from national championship contention.
By
Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
Pepperdine
University eliminated the Long Beach State
men's water polo team from the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation Championships
in the fifth place game.
After
losing to UC Berkeley in the first game
of the tournament, The Beach beat UC Santa
Barbara in a losers bracket match before
losing to Pepperdine.
Pepperdine
jumped out to 6-0 lead and despite a comeback
the 49ers were unable to overcome the Bears.
"I
was disappointed," head coach Rick
Azevedo. "I thought we could have done
better."
Azevedo
said that he was not necessarily disappointed
in his student-athletes play but simply
disappointed in the outcome of the championships
adding that he thought his team had a real
chance to compete for the NCAA Championships.
"We
expected to make it a lot further,"
sophomore goalkeeper Thomas Onyshko said.
"In the last game we came out flat
and didn't execute."
Overall
Azevedo was proud of his team's season play
this season. He said that the team was able
to beat some of the top teams in the nation.
Azevedo also said that in the past many
of teams in the MPSF considered matches
against the 49ers having a weekend off but
that now the team has established itself
as one of the premier water polo programs
in the federation and the nation.
Both
Stanford and USC advanced from the MPSF
Championships into the four-team field for
the NCAA Championships.
Azevedo
and Onyshko agreed that they think Stanford
will win the national championship. Azevedo
is not only saying he thinks Stanford will
win because his son is on the team but sincerely
believes the team has the most talented
players. He added that while USC was able
to beat Stanford three times in MPSF play
this season because the Trojans have a much
deeper team, Stanford has the best players
in the pool and ultimately that will win
out.
Onyshko
said he thinks Stanford will win because
the Cardinal have been to the championship
tournament three out of the last four years
and the experience will help the Stanford
players understand and expect the intensity
that comes with a match of this caliber.
The chamionships will be held in Palo Alto
Friday through Sunday of this week.
Azevedo
will travel to the championships as a coach
of LBSU for recruiting purposes but said
that he will have to quietly pull for his
son to do well on the largest stage of collegiate
water polo.
The
49ers will have meetings this week where
the team will discuss individual workout
plans for the offseason and the dos and
don'ts for the team next season.
Some
of the players will also compete in the
premier league for water polo which start
in February, including Onyshko who played
for the premier league team last year.
Each
team in the league is comprised of the best
players from several universities and the
LBSU team includes players from the 49ers,
Loyola Marymount and USC. Onyshko said that
he will most likely be joined by 49ers'
leading goal scorer Erik Geoffroy and Brad
Scoles who were on the team last year.
Despite
the fact that the 49ers will return its
top two goal scores in Geoffroy and stand
out freshman Reid Tomassi, Azevedo hopes
to have some of the team's red shirt players
step up and replace the positions vacated
by the eight seniors from this year's squad,
especially starters David Del Grande and
second team MPSF player Nathan Allard.
Azevedo
also added that he is in talks with three
key recruits for next year, saying that
he cannot disclose the names of the recruits
only that he is competing with USC and Stanford
for the services of the talented players.
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