By Sofia Wright— Staff Writer
After winning four of its last five games, San Jose State men’s water polo couldn’t come back to beat No. 5 Pepperdine and lost 11-8.
With back-to-back losses against Stanford and the University of the Pacific, the Waves (18-7, 2-1 GCC) took a commanding 3-0 lead early, and would only be tied with Spartans (7-14, 1-2 GCC) twice.
The Spartans stayed close the whole game, but were plagued by penalties.
They committed two fouls and picked up the only yellow card of the game, which was given to head coach Bruce Watson.
The game was fairly even as both teams finished with 28 shots. SJSU lead in steals, 9-8, with three from sophomore goalie Yahav Fire.
Fire had one of his lowest save percentage games of the season at .476 percent.
Shots were made but didn’t hit the back of the net. SJSU’s offense struggled with a low scoring percentage of .286 compared to Perpperdine’s .393 percent.
The star was the Waves’ sophomore attacker Balazs Kosa. Coming into the game, he led all Golden Coast Conference players in goals scored with 67 and points with 99.
He added to his statline with one goal and two assists.
Continuing their Southern California stint, the Spartans take on No. 7 USC Sunday at noon.
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