The finale for the UC Davis Aggies in their home tournament was a game of should haves and could haves.
Davis was down 1 to 2 going into the second with the game being established as a defensive struggle early on. Both Davis and Pepperdine had opportunities to score on fast break situations, but a combination of sloppy play and great defense on both sides limited the goals. Towards the middle of the fourth period, the Aggies and the Waves were stopped both on possible go-ahead power play situations, but both defenses tightened to stop the opposing offenses.
With the Waves leading in the middle of the final period, UCD’s Walter Eggert sent home a power play goal to tie it up, as well as assisted on Davis’ final goal that Aaron Salit punched home to give the Aggies the temporary lead. The game came down to the final moments of the fourth quarter; with 33 seconds left on the clock, the Waves were able to draw a power play against the Aggies, and called a timeout. Coming out of the break, the Waves ran a play that broke down due to sloppy play and passing. It looked like the Aggies were going to walk away until the Waves were able to salvage their broken play, and put the ball in the cage with mere seconds to spare.
From there it was all Pepperdine. The first goal scored in overtime was an impressive skip shot that went past a defender off the bar, one of the only goals scored by the Waves in regular 6 on 6 play. Pepperdine held tight for the rest of the game, and added a seventh goal to ice it. The Aggies played well for the first four quarters, but couldn’t hold off the surging Pepperdine Waves.
