Oct. 3, 2015
Malibu, Calif. ---- Kicking off Mountain Pacific Sports Federation action against the Pepperdine Waves, the San Jose State Spartans men's water polo team kept the match close in the first half before the Waves pulled away to a 14-8 win on Saturday, October 3, in Malibu.
The Waves' Marko Madaras scored quickly against the Spartans (2-9, 0-1 MPSF), finding the back of the cage at the 7:32 mark in the opening period to give Pepperdine (7-6, 1-1 MPSF) a 1-0 lead. San Jose State's 2-meter defender Scott Reynolds countered 15 seconds later with a strike to tie the contest at 1-1.
Pepperdine scored four unanswered goals to pull away from San Jose State in the first period, taking a 5-1 lead. The Spartans added three goals from Justin Contreras, Igor Miljan and Zachary Scudder to tighten the Waves lead to 5-4 with 1:49 left in the half. The Waves responded with two scores from Kenneth Keller and Wesley Sherburne to lead 7-4 at halftime.
San Jose State's Keanu Martinez scored the first in the second half to cut Pepperdine's lead to two goals, the closest the Spartans would get in the remainder of the match. Reynolds added his second goal as the San Jose State trailed 9-6 going into the final period.
Scoring his 14th goal on the season for the Spartans, Contreras found the cage for his second strike with 5:38 left in the fourth and Cade Baldridge scored San Jose State's final goal. Goalkeeper Matej Matijevic made 6 saves for the Spartans in four quarters of play.
Continuing the two-day road trip, San Jose State meets No. 3-ranked University of Southern California in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 4.
by Brian S. Stanley, SJSU athletics media relations student assistant