Breadcrumb
No. 5 Pacific Wins WCC Regular Season Title on Senior Day
Taking control of the game early, the No. 5 University of the Pacific men's water polo program won the 2024 West Coast Conference Regular Season Championship with a 14-8 victory over No. 9 Pepperdine on Senior Day Saturday at the Douglass M. Eberhardt Aquatics Center.
Pacific (18-1, 6-0 WCC) built a 7-4 halftime lead on Pepperdine (20-7, 5-1 WCC) and pulled away in the third to go up 13-6. The Tigers never trailed in the match.
The Tigers won their third championship in three seasons and first West Coast Conference title after winning both the Golden Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles in 2022. Last season was the first that the WCC sponsored men's water polo.
"I am proud of the level of championship effort and intensity our guys showed for 32 minutes today. Our team showed a commitment to the shared dream and were rewarded with a regular season championship," said head coach James Graham. "I want to thank the fans and everyone who came out to support us. This was the type of championship atmosphere that we'd like to have again next weekend."
After the match and the trophy ceremony, Pacific held a Senior Day ceremony for 12 student-athletes. It included Jeremie Cote, Reuel D'Souza, Oliver Fodor, Bae Fountain, Cooper Gaderson, Lewis Gale, Gil Gvishi, Zsombor Gyemant, Matthew Hosmer, Stefan Vavic, Mihailo Vukazic and Patrick Wooler.
Cote and Vukazic led the offense with four goals apiece. Cote has scored 10 goals in the last two games as he was coming off a six-goal performance against Cal Baptist. Vukazic is up to a team-high 60 goals on the season.
"It feels amazing and we're happy to win a regular season title, but we have more games to win before we are where we want to be," Cote said. "We've been playing really well down the stretch, but there's still a lot of work to be done. We need to sharpen up in some areas, but we're excited for the games ahead."
Submitting a hat trick was Fodor, his fifth of the season. Hosmer registered a pair of goals and freshman Ori Buzaglo also found the back of the net. Fountain made seven saves as the goalkeeper and Gale entered in relief in the fourth quarter.
"It's great to win, but the job's not done," Hosmer said. "We have two tournaments in front of us that we still need to win and hopefully we can bring home some more hardware for Pacific. We have to continue building championship habits and work hard every day to be prepared for our upcoming opponents."
The Tigers have now won seven of the last eight matches against the Waves. They haven't lost to Pepperdine at home since 2016.
Pacific posted its first unbeaten season in conference since 2019 when it went 5-0 in the Golden Coast Conference.
The Tigers have locked up the No. 1 seed and a bye to the semifinals at the WCC Tournament, which they will host at the Eberhardt Aquatics Center next weekend. Pacific will play Saturday at 1 p.m. against the winner of the No. 4 and 5 seeds, which play at 2 p.m. Friday. The championship match is slated for 1 p.m. Sunday.
