Bailey, Finley Lead UC Irvine in Water Polo

UC Irvine scored five points in the fourth quarter to defeat Pepperdine, 11-4, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation water polo game Saturday at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool. The Anteaters, ranked No. 4 nationally, improved to 5-3 and remain undefeated in the conference (3-0).

Ryan Bailey scored three goals in the first half and teammate Greg Finley had two more as UC Irvine built a 6-2 halftime lead.

Chris Tildin, who scored twice for Pepperdine (3-6, 0-3), scored early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 6-3, where the score remained until 15 seconds were left in the game.

Bailey started the fourth quarter with a two-pointer. Bailey finished the game with five points.

In nonconference men’s water polo:

Long Beach State 16, Occidental 11--Joey Gendron and Jeff Hall each scored two points in a nonconference victory for Long Beach State (3-7). Brian Brown, Jeff Colyer, Derek Lefkowoth, Eric Ploessel and Matt Tilton each scored two points for the 49ers.

Colyer also scored two points in an earlier victory over Santa Clara, 6-4. Goalie Adam Lee had four saves for Long Beach.

In Golden State Athletic Conference men’s soccer:

Biola 1, Concordia 0--Josh Ellison scored in the first half. Bryan Price had three saves for Biola (6-6, 2-0).

Fresno Pacific 2, Southern California College 0--Allen Fortune scored the Sunbirds’ first goal with a hard low shot that beat Vanguard goalkeeper Jason Cozart on the right side.

Freshman Corey Sparks got the Sunbirds’ second goal 18 minutes later when he beat Cozart on a header.

In Golden State Athletic Conference women’s soccer:

Southern California College 2, Biola 1 (OT)--Jamie Gardiner scored on Lori Van Herk’s corner kick to give Southern California College (6-5-1, 1-1-2) a victory in the second half of overtime. Late in the second half, Gardiner scored the tying goal for the Vanguards.

SCC’s Ricia Gonnering had five saves.

In nonconference women’s soccer:

CS Fullerton 1, Pepperdine 0--Dolores Browning scored what turned out to be the game’s only goal with 10 seconds left in the first half for CS Fullerton (7-3).

Kerry Murray and Barbie Gil were credited with the assists on Browning’s goal.

Goalie Suzy Strazzulla recorded nine saves for her second shutout this season.

In Big West Conference women’s volleyball:

Long Beach State 3, Pacific 2--Fifth-ranked Long Beach State battled back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat 18th-ranked Pacific, 9-15, 15-13, 12-15, 15-12, 15-12, and remain undefeated at 16-0, the best start in school history. Jessica Alvarado and Jen Snyder led the 49ers’ attack with 18 kills each.

Misty May had 14 kills and 56 assists for Long Beach State (16-0, 4-0).

Elsa Stegemann had 24 kills for Pacific (10-4, 3-1).

UC Santa Barbara 3, UC Irvine 0--Katie Crawford had 12 kills as UC Santa Barbara (12-4, 4-0) defeated UC Irvine, 15-8, 15-8, 15-3, in a conference match. Teammate Heather Brown had 11 kills for Santa Barbara. Maile Mortensen had 31 assists for the Gauchos.

Jamie Hill had 11 kills for UC Irvine. The Anteaters’ woes continue as UC Irvine drops to 1-14 and 0-4 in conference.