Men's water polo team has thrilling weekend

By Manuel Gamiz Jr., On-Line Forty-Niner

Monday, November 2, 1998

The No. 8 Long Beach State men's water polo team split a pair of close matches this weekend to drop its record to 8-10.

On Sunday, The Beach dropped a tough Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match to the No. 2 UCLA Bruins 9-8 at UCLA's Sunset Recreation Center.

After taking an early 3-2 lead in the first period, The Beach was held scoreless in the second period. The Bruins scored two goals in that period to take a 4-3 halftime lead.

Nine goals were scored in the third period, which knotted the game at 8-8. The Beach showed its fire power in that period, scoring five goals to UCLA's four.

The action slowed considerably in the fourth period as the game was scoreless for the first nine minutes. UCLA's Brian Brown scored the game winner on a man-up advantage with five minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the final period.

Leading The Beach in scoring were junior defender Shane Lindstrom, junior 2-meter man Corey Dolley and sophomore driver Mathew Sakatani with two points each. Dolley and Sakatani scored on two-point goals.

Senior defender Vince Trotter and freshman defender Chris Segesman scored one goal each to round out the scoring. Senior goalie Adam Carter had nine saves in the match.

On Friday night, The Beach got a two-point goal from Trotter in sudden-death overtime to give the team an 11-9 victory over No. 10 UC San Diego at Belmont Plaza Pool.

The Beach had a commanding 8-4 lead late in the third period behind four goals from senior driver Eric Ploessel. The Tritons came back with four goals of their own to tie the game at eight with one minute remaining in the fourth period.

Both teams scored a goal in the first overtime period, each goal coming on a man-up advantage. In the second overtime period, neither team was able to score.

In the sudden-death period, both teams had several chances to score, with each team getting one shot on goal. Trotter scored his game-winning two-point goal with 27 seconds remaining in the period.

Ploessel finished the night tying a career high with five goals.

Senior 2-meter man Jeff Colyer, junior driver Carlo Franzia, Sakatani and Lindstrom scored one goal each in the match. Carter finished the game with seven saves.

The Beach faces No. 3 UC Irvine on Tuesday night at the Belmont Plaza Pool.