Three MPSF Teams Advance to NCAA Semifinals
May 15, 2010
No. 1 Stanford 23, No. 8 Pomona Pitzer 3
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Top-seeded Stanford women's water polo made its statement to the rest of the field Friday afternoon, ringing up a 23-3 victory over eight-seeded Pomona-Pitzer in the National Collegiate Championship quarterfinals at San Diego State's Aztec Aquaplex.
With the win, Stanford (25-2) advances to Saturday's semifinal round, where it will take on cross-bay rival California at 4 p.m. at Aztec Aquaplex. California defeated Michigan, 12-8, in Friday's quarterfinal finale.
Eleven Cardinal players found the back of the cage in Friday's win, while eight of those scorers recorded multiple goals. Alex Koran and Melissa Seidemann paced the team with four goals apiece, while Annika Dries, Kelsey Holshouser, Kim Krueger, Alyssa Lo and Pallavi Menon each scored twice.
Cassie Churnside, Vee Dunlevie and Jillian Garton all added goals to the effort.
Defensively, freshman Kate Baldoni got the start and made five saves, while Kim Hall finished things up and stopped a Pomona-Pitzer shot.
The Cardinal made sure early on that there would be no doubt about the decision, taking a 7-0 lead after the opening frame. The advantage got up to as much as 10-0 before the Sagehens got on the board, but even then Stanford pushed its lead to 14-1 by halftime.
Seven more goals in the third frame made it 21-2 after three periods and the Cardinal cruised to the win from there.
Karen Bonner, Monica Loomba and Annie Oxborough-Yankus scored Pomona-Pizter's three goals, while goalie Sarah Tuggy made three saves.
Pomona-Pitzer - 0 1 1 1 = 3 Stanford - 7 7 7 2 = 23
Stanford Goal Scorers: Koran 4, Seidemann 4, Dries 2, Holshouser 2, Krueger 2, Lo 2, Menon 2, Churnside, Dunlevie, Garton Pomona-Pitzer Goal Scorers: Bonner, Loomba, Oxborough-Yankus Goalie Saves: Baldoni 5, Hall 1 (S); Tuggy 3 (P-P)
No. 2 USC 20, No. 7 Marist 5
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. -- The USC women's water polo team started its NCAA push by pinning up season-high scoring numbers on the way to a 20-5 win over Marist in the NCAA First Round on Friday afternoon at the Aztec Aquaplex in San Diego, Calif. The No. 2 seeded Trojans jumped way out ahead of the No. 7 seeded Red Foxes, and had a season-best 11 different scorers get on the board as USC built up a season-high 20 goals in the win. Now 23-3 overall, USC is set to appear in its seventh straight NCAA Semifinal, facing No. 6 seed LMU at 5:45 p.m. tomorrow (May 15) for the right to move into Sunday's title match.
To open up the game, Joelle Bekhazi tallied herself a hat trick in the first period, scoring three of USC's first four goals as the Trojans worked to a 6-0 lead. Bekhazi was joined in the early run by a skip from Kami Craig. Up 4-0, USC earned its first 6-on-5 of the game, with Patricia Jancso promptly depositing the ball in the back of the cage. Thirty seconds later, Sarah Van Norman hit Kristen Dronberger for a strike from around the 4-meter mark, and the Women of Troy were well on the way with a 6-0 lead going into the second period.
USC would climb ahead 8-0 as Kally Lucas and Alexandra Kiss got on the board for the Trojans before Marist broke through with a 6-on-5 score from Samantha Swartz. USC's response involved rattling off four more goals before the end of the half, with Kiss striking again and Dominique Sardo getting in on the scoring action before Jancso rocketed in two more goals on her way to a four-goal day.
USC's 12-1 hafltime lead grew to 16-1 as three more new Trojan scorers got in the books. Constance Hiller finished off a USC 6-on-5 to open the second half, followed by a power play blast from Kiss for her third of the day. Forel Davies, who had set up Kiss' 6-on-5 score, got a nice pass into 2-meters from Blair Moody on a USC counter, and Davies buried the opportunity. Making it a 16-1 USC advantage was Dronberger with 2:35 to go in the frame. Swartz would convert on another Marist 6-on-5 next to make it 16-1, but the last word in the period was a Jancso slam to make it 17-2 USC.
The teams stayed even on scoring in the final frame as Sardo slipped in her second and Kara-Leigh Huse and Nicolina McCall helped set USC's new season best as the 10th and 11th Trojan scorers in the game. Marist put in two 6-on-5 scores and got another even strike to go, leaving the game as a 20-5 USC victory. Tumua Anae played in the cage for the first three quarters before giving way to Courtney Ray in goal for the fourth period.
2010 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS First Round - May 14 - Aztec Aquaplex (San Diego, Calif.) [2] USC 20, [7] Marist 5 USC 6 - 6 - 5 - 3 = 20 Marist 0 - 1 - 1 - 3 = 5
SCORING: USC -- Patricia Jancso 4, Joelle Bekhazi 3, Alexandra Kiss 3, Kristen Dronberger 2, Dominique Sardo 2, Kami Craig, Kally Lucas, Constance Hiller, Forel Davies, Kara-Leigh Huse, Nicolina McCall. MARIST -- Samantha Swartz 2, Kristen Barnett, Agnes Konopka, Angie Rampton.
SAVES: Tumua Anae (USC) 4, Courtney Ray (USC) 0, Jessica Getchius (MARIST) 5.
No. 6 Loyola Marymount 5, No. 3 UCLA 4
SAN DIEGO - The No. 3 seed UCLA Bruins women's water polo team (20-8) led 3-2 after the first period, but fell 5-4 to sixth-seeded Loyola Marymount (28-4) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship at the Aztec Aquaplex in San Diego on Friday afternoon (May 14).
"Obviously, I'm very disappointed in the outcome, UCLA Head Coach Brandon Brooks said. I don't think we executed well today and I think at times we showed mistakes characteristic of youth and we looked a little nervous. I'm still very proud of the season we have had and proud of the girls I coach, and I'm proud to be a Bruin."
The Bruins got on the board first when Grace Reynolds scored her 38th goal of the year at the 7:25 mark in the first period. Anne Scott scored an equalizing goal with 4:08 remaining in the opening stanza to tie it at 1-1. Kelsey McGinley scored just her 6th goal of the season to put the Bruins back up 2-1 with 2:17 left in the first. But Scott scored again for the Lions at 1:58 left to tie it at 2-2. KK Clark notched her 24th goal of the season to give UCLA a 3-2 lead at the end of the first period (scored with 11 seconds left). Bruin goalie Caitlin Dement had one save in the first period, as did LMU goalkeeper, Kristine Cato.
The second period was controlled by LMU as the Lions scored twice while holding the Bruins scoreless. LMU tied it at 3-3 when Daisy Carrillo scored on a penalty shot with 3:00 minutes left in the second quarter. The Lions took their first lead of the match on a 6-on-5 exclusion goal by Mary Ann Campos to go ahead 4-3, a lead they would hold at halftime. Cato had five stops in the first half (including two point-blank stops) while Dement ended the first half with two saves.
LMU scored its third-straight goal with 3:09 left in the third period to take a 5-3 lead when Erin Manke scored her 31st goal of the year. Cato picked up four more stops in the third period to keep the Bruins off the scoreboard for the second consecutive quarter.
UCLA struggled for most of the match on power play opportunities, failing to convert on their first six advantages. But Cato had a lot to do with that, picking up three stops from point-blank range. Clark scored her second goal of the day on the Bruins' first power play goal (on their seventh attempt) with 1:22 left, cutting the lead to 5-4. But Clark's game-tying shot was wide left as the Bruins were upset by LMU, which picked up its first win over UCLA in 16 tries. The Bruins' bid for an unprecedented sixth-straight national championship in women's water polo came to an end.
"It's always hard to stay on top; that in itself is hard," junior Priscilla Orozco said. "But we just tried to take it a game at a time. We didn't focus on the five championships, (but instead) we were trying to get another one. That wasn't really our focus, we just wanted to focus on one game at a time. As a player, I don't think it's different just because you beat them before. Just the fact that it's the NCAA tournament; whoever we play, we are going to respect them and do whatever it takes to win. So I don't think the win in the regular season affected us today."
Dement finished with seven saves while Cato recorded 11 for LMU.
The Bruins will face Marist tomorrow at the Aztec Aquaplex at 12:30 p.m. in the consolation braket.
No. 6 Loyola Marymount vs. No. 3 UCLA (NCAA Quarterfinal Match) LMU 2 - 2 - 1 - 0 = 5 UCLA 3 - 0 - 0 - 1 = 4
LMU Goals: Anne Scott 2, Daisy Carrillo, Mary Ann Campos, Erin Manke LMU Saves: Kristine Cato 11 UCLA Goals: KK Clark 2, Grace Reynolds, Kelsey McGinley UCLA Saves: Caitlin Dement 7
No. 4 California 12, No. 5 Michigan 8
Led by three goals apiece from senior Julie Oreglia and freshman Dana Ochsner, The No. 4-ranked California women's water polo team defeated No. 5 Michigan, 12-8, in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Women's Water Polo Tournament Friday (May 14) at the Aztec Aquaplex in San Diego. The Golden Bears, directed by 1996 USA men's Olympic water polo coach Richard Corso, will next play No. 1 seed and Bay Area rival Stanford in the NCAA semifinals, Saturday, May 15 at 4 p.m. The Cardinal (25-2) were 23-3 victors over Pomona-Pitzer in another first round match. Cal is 0-3 versus Stanford this season, with one of those matches being an 8-7 defeat April 17 at Stanford.
"Our team is really fired up," said Cal coach Richard Corso. "Our first goal this season was to make the NCAA tournament and now we are in the final four and what better opponent for us to play than Stanford. It is a dream come true to play our rival. The girls are confident in their abilities and tomorrow (Saturday) will be the most important match of their lives. They are playing for a chance to earn a medal."
Cal had owned a 3-2 advantage after the first period and then jumped out to a 7-2 lead by outscoring the Wolverines, 4-0 in the second period. From there the Bears were able to keep Michigan at arms length and win their first NCAA tournament match in school history. Prior to women's water polo being an NCAA sport, Cal had competed in the National Collegiate Women's Water Polo Championship tournament from 1996-2000, finishing as national runners-up in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Besides the strong scoring of Oreglia and newcomer Oschner, the Bears had two goals from senior Meghan Corso, and a goal apiece from senior Stephanie Schnugg, sophomore Emily Csikos, sophomore Elizabeth McLaren and senior Camille Hewko. Sophomore goalie Stephanie Peckham had another fine match with seven saves.
Other first NCAA women's water polo tournament results included No. 2-seed USC defeating Marist, 20-5 and No. 3-seed UCLA falling to No. 6-seed Loyola Marymount, 6-5.
Michigan 2-0-5-1--8 Cal 3-4-4-1--12
Michigan goals: Lauren Orth 4, Alison Mantel 2, Keller Felt, Leah Robertson Cal goals: Dana Ochsner 3, Julie Oreglia 3, Meghan Corso 2, Stephanie Schnugg, Emily Csikos, Elizabeth McLaren, Camille Hewko Michigan goal saves: Alex Adamson 3, Morgan Turner 6 Cal goalie saves: Stephanie Peckham 7