Stanford, Pacific defeat The Beach

Men's water polo opens conference competition with two losses to top ten teams

By Manuel Gamiz Jr. Daily Forty-Niner

Monday, September 28, 1998

 

The Long Beach State men's water polo team opened up Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play with losses to Stanford and Pacific over the weekend.

On Sunday, the No. 4 Stanford Cardinal dominated the first half of action and finished with a 14-6 victory at deGuerre Pool in Stanford.

Stanford's Brian Heifferon scored four goals in the first half to help build a 9-0 halftime lead. Stanford had a 10-0 lead before The Beach got on the scoreboard in the third period.

Senior 2-meter man Corey Dolley led The Beach in scoring with two goals. Senior 2-meter man Jeff Colyer, junior defender Shane Lindstrom, sophomore driver Matthew Sakatani and freshman driver Tyler Wawrzynski added one goal each. Senior goalie Adam Carter finished the game with nine saves.

In Saturday's game, No. 9 Pacific built a 10-4 third-period lead and hung on to defeat The Beach 10-9 at Chris Kjeldsen Pool in Stockton.

The Beach took a 3-1 lead in the first period on a two-point goal by Dolley with 49 seconds left.

Pacific's Gabe Esposto scored 26 seconds later to start a 5-0 run that would eventually give the Tigers a 6-3 lead in the second period.

Esposto finished the game with four goals, and Pacific senior Roman Yegiyants scored five points, including two, two-point goals.

Sakatani and freshman defender Chris Segesman led The Beach in scoring with two goals each. Dolley contributed with a two-point goal.

Colyer, Lindstrom and senior driver Eric Ploessel finished with one goal. Carter had seven saves for the afternoon.

The losses dropped The Beach's record to 3-5.

The Beach has a nonconference match on Friday against Occidental. The game will be held in the LBSU Campus Pool at 3:30 p.m.

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