Beach set for MPSF championship

By Moria Khou
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer

Long Beach State's men's water polo team suffered another heartbreaking road loss against Pepperdine in Saturday's season finale, but is refocusing for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.

For the fifth time this season, the No. 6 ranked 49ers (15-11, 4-4 MPSF) fell short in a one-point game, as No. 7 ranked Pepperdine won, 11-10. The Waves improved its record to 14-12, 3-5 MPSF.

Pepperdine lit up the scoreboard in the second period on goals by freshmen, Adam Hewko and Grant Miller. The 49ers score came later in the quarter from a set two-meter shot by junior Brett McCleave, as the Waves went into halftime up 2-1.

Long Beach State tried to make a come back in the fourth period, scoring three times with goals from Eric Markle (5:39), John Foster (2:29), and Jay Gerardi (0:14). The surging Waves proved to be to heavy to overcome as Miller scored a breakaway goal to give Pepperdine the win.

The 49ers set sail for Stanford, host site of the MPSF Tournament. No. 4-seed Long Beach State will take on No. 5-seed UC Irvine for the tournament's opener on Friday at 2 p.m.

"This weekend, we're going to be focused and intense," senior John Filiponni said. "I think we match well against Irvine."

49ers' Head Coach, Ricardo Azevedo, who has used a deep bench all season long is not going to change his strategy too much for the MPSF Tournament.

"We're still going utilize a heavy rotation but just be a little more selective," Azevedo said. "It keeps the other team tired when you have fresh players."

Other games at MPSF include, No. 3 USC vs. No. 6 Cal, No. 2 Stanford vs. Pepperdine, and No. 1 UCLA vs. UC Santa Barbara.

Azevedo pointed out the experience of teams like UCLA, USC and Stanford at the tournament.

"They're senior-dominated teams and are clearly better than every other team we play," he said. "To beat them we have to play well and cut down on our mistakes."

The MPSF Tournament first-place game will be on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. and if Stanford makes it to the final then Azevedo will coach against his son, the top-ranked player in the world, Tony Azevedo. When this father and son combo meets, there is no love lost.

"It's not bittersweet," the 49ers' coach said. "When we play I want to beat the heck out of him and upset him and we game plan to do so."