LA JOLLA, Calif. - Living up to its name, the Battle of the Kings went through two overtime periods and into sudden victory as No. 15 UC San Diego and No. 10 Loyola Marymount squared off Wednesday evening. After 40-plus minutes of play, the Lions came away with a 10-9 victory in front of 1,350 fans at Canyonview Aquatic Center.
With the loss, the Tritons are now 3-7 on the season. The Lions improved to 7-1.Â
HOW IT HAPPENED
With the score tied 9-9 after a pair of three-minute overtime periods, LMU's Jonny Rimlinger found the back of the net with 23 seconds left in the first three-minute sudden victory stanza to put an end to the well-played and entertaining contest.
UC San Diego led 2-0 after the opening quarter and held a 5-2 advantage at halftime. The Lions out-scored the Tritons 3-1 in the third frame, cutting UC San Diego's lead to a single goal, 6-5, heading into the fourth quarter. Both squads traded goals early in the fourth before Bruno Salonikios struck for a goal at the 6:25 mark to make it 7-7, a score that stuck until the end of regulation.
The teams scored two goals apiece during six minutes of overtime. Rimlinger tallied LMU's pair in the first OT, while
Bennett Axline and
Manuel Augusto scored for UC San Diego in the second to even it up at 9-9 and force sudden victory.
For the Tritons, Axline and Augusto both recorded hat tricks.
Vedran Latkovic scored twice and
Rhys Bugelli kept his scoring streak alive with a single goal. Augusto added an assist for five points on the night and
Kaden Likins had four assists, a new single game career-high for the junior.
Triton keeper
Alexander Nemeth was stellar in net, establishing a new career-high with 19 saves, several of those coming on point blank shots.
At the other end of the pool, Lions' goalie Stelios Dalmaras was also solid, making 12 stops.
Aside from scoring three goals, including the game-winner, Rimlinger tacked on an assist for a total of four points. Salonikios also amassed four points with two goals and two assists.
HEAR FROM HEAD COACH MATT USTASZEWSKI
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TRITON TIDBITS
• UC San Diego leads the Battle of the Kings series 9-7.
• Bugelli is the lone Triton to have scored in all 10 of the team's games.
• Nemeth's previous career-high for saves was 15, set earlier this season against UC Santa Barbara.
• A total of 83 shots were fired in the game - 50 for LMU and 33 for UC San Diego.
UP NEXT
UC San Diego now heads to Stanford for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Invitational, which runs Sept. 23-25. The Tritons open play Friday against fourth-ranked Pacific at 6 p.m. Ensuing opponents will be determined by results. The stacked tourney field also includes No. 1 Cal, No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 USC, No. 6 UC Davis, No. 7 Long Beach State, No. 8 UC Santa Barbara, No. 9 San Jose State, No. 10 Loyola Marymount, No. 11 Pepperdine, No. 13 UC Irvine, No. 16 Fordham, Pomona-Pitzer, and Santa Clara.
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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
