Seventh is no heaven for men's water polo

By Staff Reports, On-Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, October 21, 1998

The Long Beach State men's water polo team posted a seventh place finish in the Northern California Tournament this past weekend in Palo Alto.

The Beach played a total of four games in the tournament - winning two and losing two. On Sunday, the team played tough matches with No. 5 UC Berkeley and Pepperdine. Both matches were decided in the final period.

In the Berkeley game, The Beach trailed 6-5 going into the fourth period, but they dominated the final period to pull out the victory. In the final period, LBSU scored three goals and held Cal scoreless to take the game 8-6.

Leading the way for The Beach were senior 2-meter man Jeff Coyler and freshman 2-meter man Chris Segesman, who each scored two goals in the contest.

Junior defender Shane Lindstrom, junior 2-meter man Corey Dolley, junior driver Adam Collins and freshman driver Tyler Wawrzynski each scored one goal to round out the scoring.

Earlier that day, The Beach had to face Pepperdine in a tough match-up that saw the team blow a two-goal lead late in the game.

After trailing 4-3 at the half, The Beach scored five goals in the third period to build an 8-6 lead heading into the fourth period.

However, The Beach would never lead again, as the Waves scored three goals in the final period to win the contest 9-8.

Lindstrom was the only LBSU player to score more than one goal. He ended the match with three goals. Dolley added a two-point goal and junior driver Carlo Franzia, sophomore driver Matt Sakatani and Coyler each scored one goal.

On Saturday, the team had a pair of matches against UCLA and UC San Diego, but they were decided much sooner than the final period.

Against UCLA, The Beach held the game close after the first period, trailing by only one goal 4-3. The UCLA offense took over from that point, outscoring LBSU 9-4, en route to a 13-7 victory.

Coyler once again led The Beach in scoring with two goals, while senior driver Eric Ploessel and Dolley each scored on a two-point goal. The final goal was scored by Franzia.

The Beach's first match of the tournament was against UC San Diego on Saturday.

In the game, LBSU held a commanding lead throughout the game on their way to an 8-3 victory.

Six players scored for the team, led by Lindstrom and Sakatani with two goals apiece. Scoring one goal each were Segesman, Trotter, Coyler and Ploessel.

When the weekend tournament was completed, No. 4 UC Irvine was crowned as the champion following a 7-5 upset over No. 2 UCLA, while Stanford finished in third place following a 9-7 victory over the University of the Pacific.

USC finished in fifth place following a 10-4 victory over Pepperdine.

The Trojans, who are ranked No. 1 in the country, lost its first match of the season earlier in the tournament to UOP by a score of 7-5.

The Beach will play today against UC Irvine, 7 p.m. at Heritage Park in Irvine. This game will not count as a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game for either team.