LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The 9th-ranked UC San Diego men's water polo team (11-4) heads to the Southern California tournament, hosted by Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount this week. The Tritons first game against No. 10 Long Beach State (7-7) in the SoCal Tournament is the fourth time the teams will meet this season. The first two were won by the 49ers, while the last meeting on October 2 was won by UCSD. Steven Donohoe leads UCSD with 29 goals scored while Jeff Hunt and Daniel Garcia have scored 23 goals apiece. All-time assists leader Adnan Jerkovic leads UCSD with 37 assists and David Morton has a team-high 102 saves.
Long Beach dropped its first home game of the season to UC San Diego last Thursday, 12-10. It was the third meeting of the two squads this season, but only the first Triton victory over the Niners. Jeff Greenwood and Kevin vanHaaster both picked up hat tricks in the game, and though Long Beach was only down by one after the third period, the Tritons powered through to the win.
In the second game of the weekend, the 49ers opened MPSF play against the second-ranked UCLA Bruins in Pasadena, Calif. Despite some excellent goalie saves from junior Derek Weibe-Bailey, the No. 7 Niners were not able to upset the Bruins, who won the match 10-4.
Sixteen teams will compete in the two-day, four-game tournament, including the top five teams in the nation, No. 1 USC, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Pepperdine and No. 5 California. Games will be split between the Raleigh Runnels Aquatic Center on the Pepperdine campus and LMU's Burns Aquatic Center.
After the SoCal tournament this weekend, the Tritons will host Claremont at 5:00 p.m. on October 17 at Canyonivew Pool. Shortly before the game, UCSD will honor its senior class, playing their final season with the Tritons.
