Oct. 26, 2012

DAVIS, Calif. - Junior John Mikuzis scored his third goal of the game with nine seconds remaining to lift the 11th-ranked LMU men's water polo team to a 9-8 win over 16th-ranked UC Davis at Schaal Aquatics Center on Friday night.

Mikuzis took a feed from freshman Milutin Mitrovic after an LMU timeout to put the Lions up a goal with nine seconds left. The Aggies called a timeout and then ran a play but the shot sailed high to cap a crazy final three minutes of the game.

Matt Venner and Mitrovic scored a pair of goals each and Mark Menis and Seth Coldren added a goal each as the Lions improve to 8-2 in the WWPA and 12-9 overall. UC Davis falls to 12-14 overall and 10-4 in the WWPA.

"Milutin fed a great pass to Mikuzis and he scored a great goal," said Head Coach John Loughran. "We built a three-goal lead and they fed on their crowd and ran a good play to tie it. Our guys stayed calm and got the win."

The Lions scored three straight goals in the second half to snap a 5-5 halftime tie to take an 8-5 lead with 3:01 to play on Mitrovic's second goal.

UC Davis' Bennie Rodgers scored with 2:38 to play to cut the lead to 8-6. Then with 1:10 to play, Trevor Allen scored to make it 8-7. Then after a timeout with 38 seconds to play, Rodgers scored again to tie the game at 8-8 with 16 seconds to play to set-up the final sequence.

Venner put the Lions on the board first on the initial possession of the game as the Lions would never trail. They built a 3-1 lead on Mikuzis' first goal and then 4-2 on the first possession of the second quarter, another one from Venner.

The Lions will head over to Santa Clara to take on the Broncos on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Box Score
#11 LMU -- 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 --- 9
#16 UCD -- 2 - 3 - 0 - 3 --- 8
Scoring: LMU - John Mikuzis 3, Matt Venner 2, Milutin Mitrovic 2, Seth Coldren, Mark Menis. UC Davis - Teddy Nicholson 2, Bernie Rodgers 2, Trevor Allen 2, Colin Hicks, Matt Vowell.
Saves: LMU - Kyle Testman 11. UCD - Phillip Bates 10.