LOS ANGELES -- Holden Neach's goal with 41 seconds remaining in the first overtime period gave the UC Davis the lead and the defense held off Long Beach State the rest of the way, as goalkeeper Aaron Wilson made four of his 14 saves down the stretch to help lift No. 7 UC Davis to a 9-8 overtime win over No. 5 Long Beach State in the quarterfinals of the NCAA National Collegiate Men's Water Polo Championship on Thursday afternoon at UCLA's Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles.

The win improved the Aggies to 19-8 overall and advanced them to face No. 1 USC in the semifinals on Saturday (Dec. 4) at 2 p.m. It marked UC Davis' first win in the NCAA Tournament since 1996 and is only the second win over The Beach in the last 18 meetings between the two programs dating back to 2005, snapping a 12-match losing streak in the process.
 
"It feels great, honestly," Child and Meisel Families Director of Men's Water Polo Daniel Leyson said after the match. "It takes a lot of work to get here, and to get to this match so many times and to have lost it, it's just a long road to get back and there's never a guarantee you're going to get back to it the following year.

"I'm just thankful and excited for our team. It's not about me, it's about the players and the work they put in the pool today. It was pretty phenomenal to watch. It was a very hard-fought game, a very closely contested match against a very well-coached team with some excellent players."

Long Beach State finished its season at 22-6 overall.

Senior Nir Gross shared game-high honors with four goals and finished with six points on the afternoon, drawing four exclusions and attempting seven shots on the day. Five other UC Davis players also finished with scores as Logan Anderson, Spencer Towill, Aleix Aznar Beltran (who also added three assists), Levi Murtaugh, and Neach, joined the scoring parade.

"Nir was a beast today," Leyson said. "They play a very physical game and everyone knows that Nir is one of the keys to our team, so people come after him in a physical way and that's to be expected. He handled it really well. He was a rock in there."

Meanwhile, Wilson was stellar in the cage, adding a pair of steals to his 14 saves and a .636 save percentage on the afternoon, including a stop on a 5-meter penalty at the 7:20 mark of the fourth quarter. It was Wilson's eighth match with 10-or-more stops this season and his fifth in the last six contests, including a pair during his Western Water Polo Association Tournament MVP performance at home two weeks ago. The 14 saves were just two off his career high of 16 set against Loyola Marymount on Nov. 4.

"Everybody knows in the playoffs, the goalkeeper has got to play well if the team wants to have success and Aaron played really well today," Leyson said. "The penalty save was huge and to get one today against that particular shooter was huge. He has been a goalie who we knew was capable of a game like this -- and, quite frankly, even more. He's got a lot of natural gifts and he was instrumental in helping us win. I'm really proud of his effort today."

The match featured seven tie scores, but UC Davis never trailed. The two teams traded goals to start the contest with Gross scoring twice to forge a 2-2 tie after the first quarter, then completing the hat trick following Towill's score at the 7:33 mark to give the Aggies a 4-3 advantage heading into halftime.

Murtaugh's goal gave his team its largest lead of the day at 5-3 with his score at the 5:57 mark of the third quarter, but The Beach answered with a pair just 25 seconds apart to knot things back up at five apiece midway through the period. The back-and-forth continued as Gross found the back of the cage for a fourth time with just under two minutes to play, only to have Long Beach State answer with another score by Rafael Real Vergara to make it 6-6 after three.

Both teams scored twice in the fourth with the Aggies grabbing an 8-7 advantage on a power play goal by Anderson with 3:11 to play, but The Beach did not wilt, finding the equalizer with just 67 seconds remaining to tie it up at eight and force overtime.

A turnover and a pair of missed shots by Long Beach State, and a pair of misfires by the Aggies, got the overtime period off to a slow start before Neach came up big in the final minute, taking a pass from Ben Fleming and finding the back of the net for the 9-8 lead. Wilson then made a huge save on a Long Beach State 6-on-5 and UC Davis forced a turnover as the first overtime came to a close.

Wilson stoned The Beach on their first two possessions of the second overtime and Long Beach State hit the post off a corner throw as the Aggies' defense clamped down. Aznar Beltran then blocked an attempt by Real Vergara with less than a minute to play as UC Davis ran down the clock, leaving Long Beach State just three seconds to get a game-tying attempt. Wilson was there to stop that one as well, denying Real Vergara's last gasp shot as the horn sounded.

"I also think we had a lot of contributions that would go unnoticed in the stat sheet that were key to the game," Leyson remarked. "We had some important chases on the counterattack that prevented goals. One, that I can remember, was by Michael Plastino, another was by Will Nomura, that covered for our mistakes. We had a full team effort and that's exactly what we needed."

The Aggies finished with one fewer shot than The Beach, 36-35, but limited Long Beach State to just 22 percent shooting on the afternoon. Both teams finished 4-for-11 on the power play. For UC Davis, it was the team's fifth match of the year to go to overtime, with the Aggies improving to 4-1 in those contests -- including a pair of wins in sudden victory against San Jose State and UC San Diego.

Saturday marks the third meeting this year between UC Davis and USC, with the Trojans claiming a 13-7 victory at the Aggie Roundup on Sept. 18 and a 13-8 decision in the winners bracket of the MPSF Invitational in Berkeley, Calif., on Sept. 25. The two teams have met four times in the program's history, with USC winning all four.

"They're the No. 1 seed and they have a ton of weapons at every position, but we're a little bit more familiar with them having played them a couple of times," Leyson said. "We're looking forward to continuing on and playing that game. We're excited for what's to come.

"It's definitely an underdog type scenario and, you know, the underdog never has to face as much pressure as the favorite. However, the underdog has to play well in order to knock off the favorite. They have a very strong and experienced team and they're a formidable opponent."
 

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