Sept. 27, 2007

LONG BEACH, Calif. - UC Irvine scored two fourth quarters goals to record a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Long Beach State in a men's water polo match-up on Thursday evening at the 49er Campus Pool. Sixth-rated UCI improves to 5-3 with the win while the seventh-ranked 49ers fall to 7-3.

Long Beach staged a dramatic rally in the third quarter after trailing at the half 5-2. The 49ers out-scored UCI 4-0 in the quarter to take a 6-5 lead. Reid Tomassi got the ball rolling with a goal at 7:09 and then was followed by Ash Blythen (6:12, 5:01) and Jeff Greenwood (0:20) goals to give Long Beach its only lead of the game, 6-5.

In the fourth quarter UCI struck back. Colin Mello scored his fourth goal of the game at the 7:47 mark to tie the game at 6-6. The game-winner came with 4:49 left as Cole Bitter scored for UCI.

The Anteaters led 2-1 after one quarter as Mello scored at 6:28 and 0:49. After Long Beach tied the game at 2-2 on a Clint Wilson tally at 6:06, UCI scored three consecutive goals to take a 5-2 halftime lead. Mello tallied his third at 3:49 and then Cole Bielskis (2:02) and Kyle Baxter (0:09) closed out the half.

In goal, the 49ers Steve MacKenzie had a strong outing recording a season-high 12 saves while Matt Garcia of UC Irvine finished with six. UCI took 29 shots in the contest compared to 22 for the 49ers.

The 49ers will be in action on Saturday as they open up Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) action at No. 1-ranked USC at 12 pm at McDonald's Swim Stadium.