DAVIS, Calif. - When the going got tough, the Aggies got going. That's the way Thursday evening's Western Water Polo Showdown at Schaal Aquatics against LMU went as No. 17 UC Davis opened a five-goal lead before turning back a pair of second-half challenges from the Lions during a big 13-8 win.

Marcus Anderson scored a game-high four goals while Tennyson May added three as eight Aggies found the back of the net. UC Davis improved to 20-4 overall and 5-0 in the WWPA heading into Saturday's showdown with No. 14 UC San Diego that will decide the top seed for the upcoming conference championship.

UC Davis reached the 20-win plateau the quickest in school history and is there for the fourth time. The Aggies last did it in 2011.

Dayna Jagga scored three goals for LMU which dropped to 10-14 and 3-2.

UC Davis led by three goals early in the game, eventually went up by five but then withstood two scores from the Lions that each cut the Aggies' lead to a single goal.

"It wasn't realistic to think that the way that it started was going to be how it went the whole way," said head coach Dan Leyson. "They're a good team. If we lose our focus and our concentration for a brief period of time, they're capable of coming back. They have a lot of weapons. We lost our composure on defense a little bit.

"But luckily, I think, our depth helped and our conditioning helped and down the stretch we were able to extend the lead back."

Goals by May, Sasa Antunovic, Cory Ladig and Riley Venne helped staked the Aggies to a 4-1 lead in the first quarter with Venne's coming after an exclusion against Matt Braun allowed the Aggies to play the final 20 seconds with a 6-on-5 advantage. Venne scored with six seconds on the clock.

The lead swelled to its largest of the game over the first four minutes of the second period when Anderson scored twice over a minute-span early and May added his second to make it 7-2. But three LMU goals in two minutes highlighted a 4-1 surge that made it 8-6 at the break.

Jagga scored with 3:41 left in the third to bring the Lions within 8-7, and after Morgan Olson-Fabbro's goal 37 seconds later gave the Aggies a little breathing room, Cory McGee tightened it again, 9-8, with two minutes to go.

Anderson, however, scored with 43 seconds left in the period and the Aggies used good defense, which held LMU scoreless over the final eight minutes, and goals from Anderson, Ido Goldschmidt and May in the fourth quarter to post the five-goal win.

"We had lots of contributions, really important ones that don't necessarily reflect in the scorebook," Leyson said. "Morgan OIson-Fabbro had a really good game at 2-meters. He made some excellent assist passes and drew some exclusions. Tennyson played very well at 2-meters and we had a lot of guys putting in the yeoman's work on defense."

Goalkeeper Spencer Creed had six saves, including four in the second half.

UCSD comes into Schaal Aquatics Center on Saturday with a 13-6 overall mark and a 5-0 WWPA record. The match will begin at noon.

SCORING - LMU: Dayne Jagga 3, Daniel Arrellano 1, Alex Athimaritis 1, Cory McGee 1, Jon Beck 1, Riley Smith 1, UC DAVIS: Marcus Anderson 4, Tennyson May 3, Ido Goldschmidt 1, Eric Martel 1, Morgan Olson-Fabbro 1, Cory Laidig 1, Riley Venne 1, Sasa Antunovic.

GOALIE SAVES - LMU: Dominick Beaudine 2. UC DAVIS: Spencer Creed 6.