It was a rough month on the road, as the Long Beach State men’s water polo team went 2-6, including an 0-3 start to their MPSF schedule—now they’ll come home for six straight, and hope that the familiar LB atmosphere can help them get right.  They’ll start with a big test this weekend, as the no. 8 49ers will host the no. 9 UCSB Gauchos.  It will be the second meeting between the two teams in the 2009 season with the 49ers having won the first game, 10-9, at the UCI Invitational.

They’ll square off this Saturday, October 24, at 12:00 p.m. PT at the Campus Pool. UCSB has lost four of its last five games, all against top-ten ranked opponents. The Beach outscored the Gauchos, 5-2, in the second half to pull out the comeback win, 10-9.

LAST WEEK: Long Beach State traveled to No. 7 UC Irvine last Thursday and No. 1 USC last Saturday losing both games, 9-8 in overtime and 9-4. The victory did not come easy for UC Irvine; the squads battled back and forth with each team holding two goal leads during the game. The Beach’s Justin Koeppen scored the first goal of overtime to give the 49ers an 8-7 lead but the Anteaters scored the next two goals in the second overtime to capture the victory. Kevin Mundia, Taylor Clute, and Alexsandr Petrovic each scored two goals and goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey had 13 saves to lead the 49ers.

Senior Jeff Greenwood leads the 49ers with 25 goals scored on the season and needs just one goal to tie former 49er Reid Tomasi for fourth on the Long Beach State all-time goals scored list. Goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey has started all of The Beach’s 14 games, and has notched 10 or more saves four times, including an ’09 MPSF single-game high 18 saves against No. 12 Navy.

From LBSU reports