49ers upset No. 4 UC Santa Barbara, humbled by No.1 UCLA

By Moria Khou
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

In typical fashion this season, the traveling Long Beach State men's water polo team went into sudden death overtime and squeaked pass UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, but plummeted against top-ranked UCLA, Sunday.

No. 9 Long Beach State (12-7, 3-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference) upset the No. 4 team in the country, UC Santa Barbara (17-7, 2-2 MPSF) by a score of 12-11.

Junior Brett McCleave came through in the clutch for the 49ers, scoring the game winner two minutes into sudden death overtime.

Both teams battled hard from start to finish in the heavily contested match. Long Beach State took the early command of the pool, outscoring the Gauchos 4-2 in the first quarter.

UC Santa Barbara responded to the knock from the 49ers, tallying three goals in three minutes and five goals total for the second period. Junior Ramiro Saldain closed out the first half in dramatic style as he snuck the ball pass 49ers' goalkeeper Thomas Onyshko with just one second left on the clock to tie the score at 7-7.

The underwater clash continued in the second half as The Beach struck first with a goal by McCleave. Once more, the Gauchos countered behind sophomore Matt Dale and junior Chris Gronow, scoring three goals in the third period to take a 10-9 advantage into the fourth.

Goalie Onyshko turned away every shot in the final period, while the 49ers' offense tied the score at 10-10 to send the game into overtime.

The Beach, looking to ride on the momentum from the win over the Gauchos traveled to Westwood to take on the No. 1 ranked UCLA, (18-2, 5-0 MPSF) but got mauled by the Bruins 11-6.

The 49ers' road trip continues on Saturday against UC Santa Cruz at 3 p.m. and Sunday against Stanford at noon.