USC and UCLA to Meet in Championship
May 1, 2010
2010 MPSF Tournament Leaders 
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Hawaii 7, Arizona State 4
The No. 4 seed Hawaii women's water polo team (17-8) erased a 3-2 halftime deficit to post a 7-4 victory over eighth-seeded Arizona State in the first consolation match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Saturday (May 1) morning.
Arizona State (16-14) got on the board first when Kelly Phelps scored her 14th goal of the season on a 6-on-5 opportunity with 5:35 left in the first period. Hawaii answered with a goal by Saara Majuri (19th of the year) that found the left corner to tie the score at 1-1 with 2:27 left in the first. ASU scored another exclusion goal with 1:06 left when Kelsey White found the top right corner for her 28th goal of the year. Hawaii tied the score at 2-2 with three seconds left when Monika Eggens scored her 57th goal of the year, a skipper that right post. Serena Bredin recorded three saves in the opening period.
ASU reclaimed the lead at 3-2 with 6:50 in the second quarter when Shannon Haas scored her 47th goal of the season, a shot that beat Bredin on the top left corner. The defense for both teams took over as Bredin stopped three more shots in the second quarter and ASU's goalie, Dana Harvey, registered four saves to help her team take the 3-2 lead into halftime.
Hawaii got an equalizing goal at the 3:36 mark of the third period by Dagmar Genee, her 20th goal of the year that skipped past Harvey on the left side. Amarens Genee gave the Rainbow Wahine their first lead of the day on a backhand goal (her 27th goal of the year) with 3:00 left in the third. She struck again with 1:56 left to extend Hawaii's lead to 5-3 to end the scoring for the period. Harvey picked up five saves in the third period, but Hawaii scored three unanswered goals.
ASU's Phelps scored her second of the day on a 6-on-5 opportunity with 7:25 remaining in the fourth period to cut Hawaii's lead to 5-4. Bredin picked up a huge save with 6:15 left in the match with ASU on a 6-on-4 advantage. Hawaii's Amarens Genee completed her hat trick at the 5:48 mark when she fired a point blank shot in the top right corner to increase the lead to 6-4. Eggens scored her second of the day with 2:55 left to end the scoring on the day, giving Hawaii a 7-4 victory.
Bredin finished the match with 12 saves in the cage for Hawaii while Harvey picked up nine stops for Arizona State. ASU's Sarah Harris won all four sprints.
No. 4 Hawaii advances to the 5th-place match vs. the winner of No. 6 San Jose State and No. 7 San Diego State on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
No. 8 Arizona State will face the loser of San Jose State/San Diego State in the 7th-place match at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. San Diego State 12, San Jose State 10
The No. 7 seed San Diego State women's water polo team (21-14) survived eight ties and one lead change to earn a 12-10 overtime victory over No. 6 San Jose State (16-14) in the second consolation match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Saturday (May 1) afternoon.
The entire match was a see-saw battle with San Jose State getting on the board first when Dani Curran scored at the 5:33 mark (her 45th of the season). San Diego State tied it at 1-1 with a goal from Melissa de Jonckheere, her 32nd goal of the year, with 5:00 left in the first period. Janessa Schmidbauer (18th goal of the year) gave SJSU a 2-1 lead on a breakaway goal with 4:51 to go in the first. Alex Ford scored her 16th goal on a 6-on-5 opportunity for SDSU to tie it at 2-2. Curran scored her second goal of the day and 46th on the year with 3:26 left in the first to put the Spartans up 3-2. But the Aztecs tied it at 3-3 with a buzzer-beater by Sarah Brady, her 33rd of the season, to end the first quarter.
San Jose State won a defensive battle in the second period, scoring the only goal of the quarter with 26 seconds left when Adriana Vogt fired a shot past Aztec keeper Kelly Campoli to take a 4-3 lead at the break. Campoli had five saves in the first half while Spartan goalie Meagan Minson earned six saves.
The Spartans built a 5-3 lead when Janessa Schmidbauer scored her 19th goal of the year with 7:21 left in the third period. Sarah Brady scored her second of the day on a lob over the keeper to trim the Spartans lead to 5-4 with 3:36 left in the third. Then de Jonckheere added her second of the match to tie it at 5-5 on an exclusion goal with 2:18 left in the period. Meaghan Poland scored her 39th of the year with nine seconds left, the third straight goal for SDSU, giving the Aztecs a 6-5 lead at the end of the third period.
San Jose State got an equalizing goal to make it 6-6 when Vogt scored a penalty shot (60th on the year) with 5:11 left in the match. SDSU reclaimed the lead at 7-6 when Meghann Pedersen scored her eighth of the season with 4:53 to go. San Jose State again tied it at 7-7 with 3:09 left in the match when Bridget McKee just beat Campoli, who was able to get a hand on it, for her 37th goal of the year. The Aztecs got a go-ahead goal from de Jonckheere, who completed her hat trick with a shot at the left corner with 14 seconds remaining in regulation. But San Jose State tied it at 8-8 just five seconds later when Vogt scored her own hat trick with nine seconds left.
Brady scored a hat trick on a penalty shot with 2:00 left in overtime to give the Aztecs a 9-8 lead. But Vogt scored her fourth on the day with a penalty shot with 1:38 left in OT. San Diego State's Amber Pezzolla scored her first goal of the Tournament and her 53rd of the year to give SDSU a 10-9 advantage 1:14 left in the overtime period. Alex Ford scored on a lob shot from 30 feet out with just four seconds left in the first overtime to give SDSU an 11-9 lead.
San Jose State got a much-needed goal from McKee, her second of the day, off a skipper from 15 feet out past Campoli to trim the Aztecs' lead to 11-10. SDSU's de Jonckheere scored her fourth of the match to secure the Aztec win with 53 seconds left in the second OT period.
Minson finished the match with 15 saves in the cage for San Jose State while Campoli picked up 14 stops for San Diego State. San Diego State won the first five sprints (first four by Pezzolla).
No. 7 San Diego State advances to the 5th-place match where they will face No. 4 Hawaii on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.
No. 6 San Jose State will face No. 8 Arizona State in the 7th-place match at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday. UCLA 7, Stanford 6
The No. 5 seed UCLA women's water polo team (19-7) held No. 1 Stanford to just three goals in the final three periods to pull off a 7-6 upset in the first semifinal match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Saturday (May 1) afternoon.
"The win today was fantastic for our program," UCLA Head Coach Brandon Brooks said. "As the season has progressed, we have gone back to the fundamentals and focused on the little things. It has helped us a lot and helped us to believe in ourselves."
The Bruins drew first blood when Grace Reynolds put a skipper past Amber Oland with 6:34 left in the first period, her 35th goal of the season. Melissa Seidemann tied it fore Stanford at 1-1 at the 6:13 mark, her 44th of the year. Alex Koran (10th of the year) gave the Cardinal their first lead at 2-1 with 5:30 left in the first period. The Bruins got an equalizing goal from Megan Burmeister, her 15th on the season to tie it at 2-2 with 4:25 to go in the opening stanza. Seidemann scored her second of the day to give Stanford a 3-2 lead with 4:00 minutes left to end the scoring for the first period.
UCLA again scored first in the second period, tying the score at 3-3 when Sarah Orozco put her 20th of the season in the back of the net with 5:40 left in the second period. Stanford reclaimed the lead at 4-3 when Pallavi Menon scored her 32nd of the year with 5:07 left in the period. It was the final goal of the half as Stanford took a 4-3 lead into halftime. Both goalies, Caitlin Dement for UCLA and Oland picked up four saves in the second period.
Kelsey Holshouser scored her first goal of the Tournament, giving Stanford a 5-3 lead at 7:33 of the third period. Her 21st goal of the year just crossed the line near the right post as Dement got a hand on it. Priscilla Orozco scored her 34th of the year to keep the Bruins in it, trimming Stanford's lead to 5-4 with 4:52 left in the third period. Kelly Easterday tied the match at 5-5 for UCLA with her 22nd of the season at the 4:07 mark. The Bruins then scored their third straight goal to take a 6-5 lead on an exclusion goal by KK Clark (21st on the year) with 1:53 to go in the third quarter. Dement got a huge save on Stanford's last possession, a 6-on-5 opportunity, to preserve the Bruins' 6-5 lead at the end of three quarters.
Emily Greenwood scored her 15th goal of the year, a skipper past Oland, that gave the Bruins a two-goal advantage with 3:41 remaining in the match. Jessica Steffens trimmed the lead to 7-6 at the 2:57 mark on a breakaway shot that she lobbed over Dement. UCLA's Emily Greenwood picked up a huge steal on a 6-on-5 opportunity for Stanford with 1:40 remaining in the match to help preserve the win. The Bruins defense turned Stanford away again, this time on the Cardinal's final possession as Reynolds deflected a pass to center and UCLA ran out the final 14 seconds for the 7-6 win.
Dement finished the match with 11 saves in the cage for UCLA while Oland picked up nine stops for Stanford. KK Clark won three of the four sprints for the Bruins.
"Today felt really good as we put it all together and played well as an entire team," UCLA goalkeeper Caitlin Dement said. "We played really good on offense and were very solid on defense and were always aware of what was going on. It was a great win, but it was just one win, and we can't dwell on it too long because we still have some huge matches coming up for us."
No. 5 UCLA advances to the Championship match where they will face the winner of No. 2 USC vs. No. 3 California on Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
No. 1 Stanford will face the loser of the USC/California match in the 3rd-place match at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. USC 9, California 7
The No. 2 seed USC women's water polo team (22-2) held off No. 3 California (24-7) for a 9-7 victory in the second semifinal match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Saturday (May 1) afternoon.
The Trojans got on the board first when Joelle Bekhazi scored her 49th goal of the season with 5:17 left in the opening period. Cal got an equalizing goal from Emily Csikos, her 62nd of the year, at the 3:23 mark. USC reclaimed the lead with 1:51 remaining when Alexandra Kiss scored her 27th goal of the year on a 6-on-5 opportunity. But the Golden Bears scored a power play when Csikos scored to beat the buzzer and tie the match at 2-2.
Cal claimed its first lead of the match when Julie Oreglia scored her 18th of the season with 5:50 left in the second quarter for a 3-2 lead. Kiss scored her second of the day to tie it at 3-3 with 5:21 to go. Then Csikos completed her hat trick with 4:28 remaining to give the Golden Bears a 4-3 advantage. Not to be outdone, Kiss earned her own hat trick on an exclusion goal with just two seconds left to tie the score at 4-4. But Cal wasn't done in the first half, and neither was Csikos, as she scored her fourth goal of the first half as the buzzer sounded to give the Golden Bears a 5-4 lead at the break.
The Trojans earned a shutout in the third period, recording three goals to garner a 7-5 lead after three periods. Kally Lucas scored her 34th goal of the year to tie it at 5-5 with 7:27 left in the third. Then Kami Craig added her 33rd of the season on a power play goal with 6:25 remaining. Dominique Sardo ended the scoring in the third period, her 12th of the year on a breakaway at the 6:02 mark of the third.
Cal closed to within 7-6 when Oreglia scored her second of the day on the first possession of the final period with 7:37 left. Bekhazi scored again to put USC up 8-6 on a penalty shot with 6:20 to go. The Trojans scored their second straight goal when Patricia Jancso scored her 33rd of the season with 5:26 remaining. Cal's Camille Hewko trimmed the lead to 9-7 when she scored her 37th goal of the year with 4:11 remaining in the match. Both teams played stellar defense down the stretch and the Trojans came away with a 9-7 victory.
Tumua Anae finished the match with five saves in the cage for USC while Stephanie Peckham picked up five stops for California. Forel Davies won the first three sprints for USC while Csikos claimed the final sprint for Cal.
No. 2 USC advances to the Championship match where they will face No. 5 UCLA on Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
No. 3 California will face No. 2 Stanford in the 3rd-place match at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.