LA JOLLA, Calif. — The 13th-ranked UC San Diego men's water polo team closed out its own Triton Invitational Sunday with a pair of losses.
In their morning match, the Tritons were defeated 10-5 by No. 12 UC Irvine. In the afternoon, eighth-ranked UC Santa Barbara held on for a 16-15 win in overtime.
UC San Diego finished the tourney with a 1-3 record. Saturday, the Tritons defeated La Verne by putting 22 goals on the board before losing against No. 10 Pepperdine in overtime.
HOW IT HAPPENED #1
UC San Diego and UC Irvine were tied 2-2 after the opening quarter but the Anteaters netted three goals while keeping the Tritons scoreless in the second frame to take a 5-2 advantage into halftime. UCI led 8-3 after three and tacked on two straight goals early in the fourth quarter to go up 10-3.
Jack Martin tallied a pair of goals for the Tritons in the final 1:24, but that would be it for the scoring.
Three others scored for UC San Diego in the game including
Max Carrillo,
Rhys Bugelli, and freshman
Luca Rago. Rago finished with two points as he added an assist as well. His first goal at 3:49 of the first quarter put the Tritons up 2-1, which their only lead of the game. UC Irvine went on to score seven unanswered goals after the Rago strike.
Alexander Nemeth and
Logan Estes each played a half with Nemeth totaling six saves and Estes finishing with four.
The Anteaters got four goals from Zlatan Nikocevic while six other players had single goals. Jacob Pyle made nine stops in net.
HOW IT HAPPENED #2
With UC Santa Barbara leading 13-11 after three quarters of play, the Tritons out-scored the Gauchos 4-2 in the fourth to force overtime. In fact, all four of UC San Diego's goals came in the final 3:10 of the period.
Vedran Latkovic accounted for three of them, including one with just four seconds remaining to tie it up at at 15-15.Â
However, UCSB was able to out-score the home team 2-1 in the first overtime and 3-1 in the second.
When all was said and done, Latkovic had accumulated a career-high eight points on six goals and a pair of assists. His goal total matched his career-best.
Bugelli (three goals, one assist) and
Miles Wilson (one goal, three assists) each finished with four points, while
Bennett Axline (three goals) and Connor MacMitchell (three assists) had three point apiece.
Nemeth played the entire 38 minutes and was called upon to make 12 saves, two short of his career-high.
Adam Gyenis and Sam Nangle each scored four times for UCSB. Gyenis racked up seven points by adding three assists. Tommy Hawkins had six points on two goals and four assists, while Ryan Brosnan assisted on five goals.
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TRITON TIDBITS
• Over this weekend's four games,
Vedran Latkovic led the Tritons in point production with 18 (13 goals, 5 assists).
•
Rhys Bugelli was second on the points list with 14 (10 goals, 4 assists).
• Latkovic also scored six goals against San Jose State on Sept. 26, 2021.
• Goalkeeper
Alexander Nemeth made 30 saves over 2.5 matches.
• The win against La Verne was the first victory for UC San Diego head coach Matt Ustaszewski, who took over the reigns in July of this year when Denny Harper announced his retirement following 42 years at the helm of the program. Ustaszewski played for the Tritons and graduated from UC San Diego in 2004.Â
UP NEXT
UC San Diego plays its first Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) match of the year at Fresno Pacific on Thursday, Sept. 8, at 6 p.m. The Tritons then travel to the Bay Area to take on non-conference opponent Cal, the nation's top-ranked squad, on Saturday, Sept. 10, at noon.
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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 II and III 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.
