With a four-game winning streak, Long Beach State will host UC Irvine and Pacific this weekend at the Campus Pool.
The 49ers (13-3, 2-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will first face UCI (13-6, 1-2 MPSF), which won its first conference victory against Pacific (12-7, 0-2 MPSF).
The Anteaters’ scoring leader Lovre Milos has racked up a conference high of 75 goals this season.
“They’ve got some strong shooters,” head coach Gavin Arroyo said. “We are ready to compete, and so are they.”
The 49ers winning streak began when they knocked off Pacific 11-9 a couple of weeks ago at the SoCal Tournament hosted by UCLA.
In the non-conference victory, LBSU junior center Ricardo Guimares, junior utility player Dimitrios Lappas and senior center Dan Matulis each scored a pair of goals against the Tigers’ interior defense.
“They play a deep zone defense,” Lappas said. “It’s our favorite kind of defense because we know how to attack it. After the first 20 seconds, when we passed the ball to the No. 5 spot, they started pressing all over the place.”
Lappas also said Pacific’s style of defense leaves the drive or center open to score.
“It’s all going to come down to defense,” assistant coach Justin Koeppen said. “The last time we played them, we held them to a 0-2 first quarter. But then they peaked in the third and fourth quarters.”
Koeppen said the key to the 49ers’ defensive success will depend on shot-blocking, and pressing when appropriate.
Junior defender Zacchary Kappos netted a team high of 37 goals over the course of 18 games this season. Left-handed junior attacker Nolan McConnell is second on the team in goals, with 30 total.
Koeppen talked about the importance of having both Kappos and McConnell in the lineup at the same time.
“It definitely strengthens our four and five spots,” Koeppen said. “With Nolan being our senior left-hander, he’s definitely a huge offensive asset. He does a good job of finding guys and is a good defender too.”
The 49ers will face the Anteaters on Saturday, and play Pacific on Sunday. Both games start at 12 p.m. at the Campus Pool.