Men's Sports, Men's Water Polo, Sports

‘Niners to face LMU for fourth time this season

The No. 8 Long Beach State men’s water polo team will be seeking a much-needed win as it heads to the Burns Aquatic Center for a match against Loyola Marymount on Thursday.

“It’s a tough place to play,” head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “LMU is a young team, a talented team, and is similar to us in that they’re a little bit up and down.”

The 49ers (18-10, 1-5 MPSF) are 3-0 against the Lions this season, with the two team’s most recent meeting coming during the SoCal tournament in early October.

In that match LBSU came out with a strong first quarter of play but then failed to repeat the effort in the second and third periods, allowing the Lions (12-12, 2-3 WWPA) to hang around and keep it close going into the final eight minutes of the game.

In the end, LBSU returned to solid form and was able to pull away and achieve a 13-9 victory.

This time around, LBSU will play in hostile territory and be challenged by a pro-Lion crowd and an LMU squad that will use every bit of momentum to its advantage.

“It’s going to be a battle, every game from here on out is going to be a battle,” Arroyo said.

The ‘Niners need to limit their mistakes while playing against the Lions and use their close losses to UCLA and Stanford this past weekend as examples of the caliber of play they’re capable of achieving.

The LMU match marks the third to last game of the regular season for the ‘Niners, and, although it’s a non-conference match, every win is vital.

“We’re always working for our seniors, and we just want to make every game count now that we don’t have that many games left,” sophomore Zacchary Kappos said.

A senior like starting attacker Carter Taylor has worked his entire career as a 49er, and it all comes down to these final games where winning is the only tangible validation of hard work.

“I just want to give it my all, leave everything in the pool and win some games,” Taylor said.

The ‘Niners will take to the pool at the Burns Aquatic Center on Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. against LMU. They will then head to downtown Los Angeles for a Saturday game at No. 3 Southern California.

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