Long Beach State sophomore attacker Harper Stewart shoots the ball in sudden overtime against Loyola Marymount University to win the game on Nov. 13 at the LBCC Aquatics Center. Jorge Hernandez | Long Beach Current
Celebrating senior night in the final game of its regular season, No. 7 Long Beach State men’s water polo hung on to secure the win in a sudden death thriller against No. 12 Loyola Marymount University on Thursday, Nov. 13 at the Long Beach City College Aquatics Complex.
Prior to the non-conference game to close out the season, LBSU (16-8) dominated UC Davis on Nov. 8 in its final Big West regular season contest to clinch the No. 1 seed heading into the conference postseason tournament.
“I hope we don’t mess this up because then we’re going to be in trouble,” LBSU head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “We’ve got to go on with the strong mentality, we deserve to be the first seed.”
While The Beach maintained a comfortable lead for the majority of the match, heading into the final quarter with a 10-7 advantage, the Lions (13-11) forcing overtime with a fourth quarter flurry resulted in LBSU relying on late game heroics to escape with the win.
“We didn’t do a great job protecting the ball,” Arroyo said. “This was a great experience for us tonight, this situation can very well be next weekend.”
Sophomore goalie and Big West Player of the Week Joe Jenness recorded 10 saves on a .400 save percentage in the victory.
It was an all hands on deck effort for The Beach on Thursday night, as eight different players found the back of the net against the Lions.
In front of a packed LBCC Aquatics Complex full of families celebrating senior night, The Beach took an early 4-2 lead after the first period following a curved lob shot by sophomore attacker Oliver Sudar.
A back-and-forth defensive battle characterized the second quarter, as just two goals were tallied between both teams, as the period ended with a 5-3 LBSU lead.
However, The Beach offense unloaded in the third quarter with five scores, with the pair of brothers, senior utility Toring Stanley and sophomore center Corbin Stanley, scoring the last two goals to give LBSU a three point advantage heading into the fourth.
Just as the Lions clawed their way back in it, cutting the lead to 11-10 with just over five minutes remaining in regulation, junior attacker Caleb Francisco found the net for the third time on the night, scoring his eighth hat trick of the season.
Despite that, LMU’s late resurgence could not be stopped, and after tying the match at 12 with two minutes to go, each team’s defense hung on to force overtime.
“Mistakes on our behalf that led into counterattack goals … we didn’t capitalize on some of the opportunities,” LBSU sophomore attacker Harper Stewart said of his team’s late game execution.
The Lions gained their first lead of the game with 1:15 remaining in overtime thanks to a strike from graduate attacker Tommaso Baldineti.
To save The Beach’s chances, Francisco added on to his tally with crucial penalty shot make, with Corbin Stanley adding on with his second goal of the night to regain the lead 14-13 at the end of the first overtime period.
LMU outscored LBSU 2-1 in the second overtime period, with The Beach’s Stewart scoring their lone goal to seal a hat trick for himself to help force sudden death.
Almost immediately, Stewart put the Lions to bed with the game winning goal, clinching the 16-15 victory.
“It’s been a rough start to the season just for me personally, but it’s really nice to just cap off the end of the regular season like that with winning in sudden death,” Harper said.
Staying perfect in the Big West Conference, LBSU secured the first seed that will go on to play either the hosts of the Big West tournament and fifth seed UCI or the fourth seed UCSD in the semi-finals looking to go back-to-back as conference champions on Saturday, Nov.21.
After being perfect in the Big West, No. 1 seed LBSU will face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between No. 4 seed UC San Diego and host No. 5 UC Irvine in the semifinals of the Big West Tournament on Saturday, Nov. 22.
“We’re all super excited, this is what I’ve been working for this whole season,” Harper said. “We’ve been grinding, it’s good to come in here and be ready for the conference.”