The No. 6 Long Beach State men’s water polo team will travel across town to Westwood and put its undefeated 4-0 record to the test against No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 UCLA and No. 9 Pepperdine.
LBSU head coach Gavin Arroyo opened his eighth season after his team outscored its opponents [Air Force, La Verne, Loyola Marymount and Pomona-Pitzer] by at least half, a total of 47 points more, at the Triton Invitational last weekend.
Eleven different 49ers scored in the 17-6 win against Pomona-Pitzer, and 12 different players scored in the 22-7 blowout against La Verne. None of those teams were Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams.
“For us, opening weekend is about getting the kinks out and seeing guys play,” Arroyo said. “The good thing about the weekend was that we didn’t play down to the level of our opponents.”
Facing top-ranked Stanford, UCLA and Pepperdine this weekend, the ‘Niners will get their first true test of the young season.
“They [Stanford and UCLA] are the benchmark,” Arroyo said. “It’ll be good to see how we size up against them.”
Arroyo said that this weekend will be a great “magnifying glass” situation for the team to assess the strengths and weaknesses this week.
“They expose your weaknesses because every time you make a mistake, you pay for it,” Arroyo said. “It’s all about gauging to see if we can hang with them.”
The ultimate goal for the 49ers is to defeat the top-four ranked teams in the nation – Stanford, USC, UCLA and California.
With 11 returned juniors and seniors, LBSU is a veteran team loaded with experience.
One of those returners is 6’11 center Dan Matilus from Milford, Ohio, who scored a total of nine goals last weekend.
“For our younger guys, the older guys set the bar,” Arroyo said. “Matilus is a role model …because he has a lot of tenacity to compete. He redshirted his junior year and had to work hard to get where he is.”
The Beach will travel to Claremont to play two Division III schools (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Whittier) in the Inland Empire Tournament Sunday.
For the ‘Niners, this weekend will be all about getting as much experience as possible; Arroyo said he believes this is one of the most talented teams he’s ever had.