UCLA Claims Women's Water Polo Tournament Title
May 2, 2010
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UCLA 8, USC 7
The No. 5 seed UCLA Bruins women's water polo team (20-7) scored the first three goals of the match and held on to post an 8-7 victory over second-seeded USC (22-3) in the championship match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Sunday (May 2) afternoon.
The Bruins made their incredible Tournament run knocking off the top-seeded Cardinal of Stanford, the second-season Trojans of USC and the fourth-seeded Rainbow Wahine of Hawaii to win their conference leading eighth MPSF Tournament championship and became the first team to win the crown from the fifth seed. The Bruins entered the MPSF Tournament with a 1-5 combined record against the three teams they defeated to win the title.
"The last time we played USC, exposed our weaknesses as a team," UCLA Head Coach Brandon Brooks said. "After a team meeting, we came back refocused and had two weeks of practice and obviously made some improvements."
Freshman Emily Greenwood (16th of the year) got the Bruins on the board first with 5:24 left in the first when her skip shot was deflected off USC goalie Tumua Anae and went in for a 1-0 lead. Junior Kelsey McGinley (5th goal of the year) gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead when her skip shot sailed between Anae and the right post with 4:05 to go in the first. Sophomore KK Clark scored her 22nd goal of the season, a rebound goal off her own shot that was initially stopped by Anae on a man advantage with 2:01 to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead. The Trojans got their first goal on a 6-on-5 opportunity (their fourth of the first period) from Patricia Jancso (34th on the year) with 1:42 left in the first to end the period with UCLA holding a 3-1 advantage.
USC got another exclusion goal, this time from Kally Lucas, her 35th of the season, to pull to within one goal at 3-2 with 5:43 left in the second period. Junior Kelly Easterday pushed the lead back to two with her 23rd goal of the year to make it 4-2 with 3:34 left in the second. The Bruin defense, especially the penalty killing unit, came up big in the first half to help UCLA to a 4-2 lead at the break. The Trojans converted on only one of eight 6-on-5 opportunities in the first half. The Bruins converted on 1-of-2 power plays in the first half.
Priscilla Orozco scored her 35th goal of the year when she fired a low shot past Anae on the left side to put the Bruins up 5-2 with 5:28 left in the third after Bruin goalie Caitlin Dement stopped USC's ninth power play. Dement stopped another USC 6-on-5 opportunity, her third exclusion save of the day and an MPSF-leading 11th of the Tournament. The Bruins got another rebound goal when junior Grace Reynolds scored her 36th of the season to put UCLA up 6-2 with 3:00 minutes left in the third. Jancso scored her second of the day with 1:55 remaining to trim UCLA's lead to 6-3. Reynolds scored her second of the day, a 6-on-5 opportunity, from a nice pass to center from Orozco with 1:35 left to put the Bruins up 7-3. Then Jancso completed her hat trick with a long low shot to the left corner with 1:16 left to pull the Trojans to within three as UCLA took a 7-4 lead into the final quarter.
"It was amazing," Reynolds said, who scored both of her goals in the third period. "We knew we could do it and we came back after the last time we played USC and totally redeemed ourselves. We hope to keep the momentum going into NCAAs."
Alexandra Kiss scored on an off-speed shot that landed in the bottom right corner to cut it to 7-5 with 6:50 left in the match. Clark then scored her second of the day on a power play to put the Bruins up 8-5 with 4:10 remaining. Jancso scored her fourth of the day on a penalty shot that found the left corner with 2:25 remaining in the match that left USC trailing 8-6. Dement then recorded her fourth exclusion save on USC's 16th power play opportunity of the match. Kami Craig scored on the Trojans' 17th power play of the match to make it a one-goal game at 8-7 with 49 seconds left in the match. UCLA made one last defensive stand on the final possession to pull off the upset.
"We got a great performance in the cage," Brooks said. "We had some heads-up plays from our perimeter players and we took some ejections when we had to. We made some critical stops down the stretch and came out on top."
Anae finished with 12 saves in the cage for USC while Dement recorded 11 for UCLA. The Trojans' Forel Davies won all four sprints for USC.
Stanford 10, California 3
The No. 1 seed Stanford women's water polo team (24-2) scored the first four goals of the match and never looked back, posting a 10-3 victory over third-seeded California (24-8) in the third-place match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Sunday (May 2) afternoon.
Melissa Seidemann got the Cardinal on the board first with her 46th goal of the year at the 6:02 mark of the opening period when she got the ball in the middle and fired it past California goalkeeper Stephanie Peckham. Cassie Churnside scored her first goal of the Tournament (15th of the season) on a 6-on-5 opportunity with 4:06 left, giving Stanford a 2-0 lead. Stanford built its lead to 3-0 when Kim Krueger scored her 25th goal of the year ending the scoring for the first period with 1:05 remaining.
Stanford raced to a 4-0 lead when Annika Dries got the ball in the center and fired to the left post for her 31st goal of the year with 6:23 to go in the second period. California stopped the bleeding with a breakaway goal on the right side from Julie Oreglia, her 20th of the year, at the 5:20 mark of the second quarter. Seidemann scored her second of the day on a long shot from the top to give Stanford a 5-1 lead with 4:11 left in the second period. That score would hold up till the break.
Emily Csikos pulled Cal to within three goals when she scored her 66th goal of the year at 7:21 of the third period to make it 5-2. Kelly Eaton got a rebound goal when Peckham stopped a shot by Dries with 5:25 left in the third to push the lead to 6-2.
The Cardinal scored on a penalty shot by Eaton in the fourth quarter with 6:38 left in the match. Seidemann completed her hat trick with a skipper past Peckham with 5:30 remaining, giving the Cardinal a commanding 8-2 advantage. Then Stanford's Eaton completed her hat trick with 4:53 left from a nice pass inside from Churnside to make it 9-2. Kate Baldoni came in to replace Oland in the cage for the Cardinal for the final 4:53 of the fourth quarter. Elizabeth McLaren scored her 12th goal of the season, sending a shot in the top right corner past Baldoni with 3:05 to go in the fourth period. Dries pump-faked Peckham and then lobbed one over her for her second score of the day to put Stanford up 10-3 with 1:36 left, ending the scoring for the game.
Oland finished with three saves in the cage for Stanford and Baldoni picked up two on short-handed plays for the Cardinal while Peckham recorded nine for California. Eaton won the first and last of the sprints for the Cardinal while Csikos won the middle two for the Golden Bears.
Hawaii 7, San Diego State 6
The No. 4 seed Hawaii women's water polo team (18-8) took a 7-3 lead after three quarters and held on for a 7-6 victory over seventh-seeded San Diego State (21-15) in the fifth-place match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Sunday (May 2) afternoon.
Amber Pezzolla got the Aztecs on the board first with a power play goal at the 5:42 mark, her 54th of the season. Leanne Ford gave SDSU a two-goal lead with 4:26 left when she fired a shot (her 43rd goal of the season) to the top right corner past Hawaii goalie Serena Bredin. Saara Majuri scored her 20th goal of the year, cutting the lead to 2-1 with a lob shot over SDSU keeper Kelly Campoli with 2:43 left in the first. Amarens Genee tied the match at 2-2 with her 30th goal of the year from the left side that skipped to the right post with 0:52 seconds left. Then each team scored a goal in the last five seconds of the first period. Melissa de Jonckheere (36th goal of the year) gave the Aztecs a 3-2 lead with five seconds left on a 6-on-5 opportunity. Monika Eggens (59th of the season) tied it at 3-3 with two seconds left with a long shot from center to end the first period scoring.
Then Hawaii added two goals in the second period while holding SDSU scoreless. Eggens scored her second of the day on a 6-on-5 opportunity to put UH up 4-3 with 7:10 left in the second. Carmen Eggens scored her 39th goal of the year with 1:33 left in the period to give Hawaii a 5-3 lead at halftime. Bredin and Campoli both picked up six saves in the first half.
Carmen Eggens added her second goal of the day when she got the ball in the middle and turned and fired past Campoli in the right corner with 6:19 left to double-up SDSU 6-3. Then Carmen Eggens completed her hat trick with a goal with 2:14 left to give the Rainbow Wahine a 7-3 lead.
Sarah Brady snapped Hawaii's five-goal run when she snuck a low skipper past Bredin near the left post, scoring her 36th goal of the year with 6:59 left in the fourth period. The Aztecs cut the lead to 7-5 when de Jonckheere scored her second goal of the day with 55 seconds left in the match. Then the Aztecs scored their third straight goal when Meaghan Poland (40th goal of the year) caught the ball in the middle and fired a low shot in the left corner to end the scoring at 7-6 in favor of Hawaii.
Bredin finished with 10 saves in the cage for Hawaii while Campoli recorded seven for San Diego State. The Aztecs won all four sprints with Pezzolla winning the first three and de Jonckheere winning the final sprint.
San Jose State 10, Arizona State 9
The No. 6 seed San Jose State women's water polo team (17-14) used a defensive stand in the second half to post a 10-9 victory over eighth-seeded Arizona State (16-15) in the seventh-place match of the 2010 MPSF Women's Water Polo Championship at Spieker Aquatics Center on the campus of UCLA on Sunday (May 2) morning.
The Spartans got on the board first when Bridget McKee scored her 39th goal of the year on a 6-on-5 opportunity from a great pass from Adriana Vogt at the 7:12 mark of the first period. The Spartans displayed great passing again when Anna Natalizio set up Dani Curran for a one-timer with 6:07 to go in the first that put SJSU up 2-0. Curran's 47th goal of the season got by ASU keeper Dana Harvey. The Sun Devils got on the board with 4:59 remaining when Kelly Phelps scored her 16th of the year, a low skipper past SJSU keeper Meagan Minson to make it 2-1. SJSU responded on the next possession to make it 3-1 when Adriana Vogt fired a shot at the left corner for her 63rd goal of the year. Curran scored her second of the period with a power play goal to put the Spartans up 4-1 with 3:46 to go in the opening period. Curran completed the hat trick in the first period when her penalty shot skipped past Harvey to find the left corner with 2:04 to go in the first that put SJSU up 5-1. Sarah Harris scored her 37th goal of the year when she scored on a 6-on-5 opportunity with 1:10 left to make it 5-2 SJSU. Arizona State scored back-to-back exclusion goals when Bonnie Miles scored her 21st goal of the year with 29 seconds left to end the scoring for the first period with the Spartans leading 5-3.
Mariam Salloum scored her 21st goal of the year on an assist from Kari Walsh to trim the lead to 5-4 with 7:32 left in the second period. Then Walsh scored her 18th goal of the year and ASU's fourth-straight goal when she fired a low skip shot that found the left corner with 6:55 remaining in the second to tie it at 5-5. Curran scored her fourth goal of the day to reclaim the lead at 6-5 for SJSU with 5:53 to go in the second quarter. The Sun Devils tied it at 6-6 with a goal by Lynlee Smith, her 49th of the year, with 2:53 left in the second stanza. ASU took its first lead of the day at 7-6 with 1:08 left in the second when Salloum scored her second of the day, a skip shot near the left post. Kelsey White gave ASU a two-goal lead with an exclusion goal with one second left in the period, giving the Sun Devils an 8-6 lead at the break. It was White's 29th goal of the year.
Janessa Schmidbauer scored her 20th of the season, trimming the lead to 8-7 with a one-timer set up by Allie Stewart with 3:11 remaining in the third period that got past Amanda Young. ASU pushed it back to a two-goal lead when Smith scored her second of the day on a power play with 2:47 left in the third. Then Schmidbauer scored her second of the day with an assist from Vogt at the 1:34 mark of the third, making it 9-8 ASU. Vogt set up another score, this time for Kelly Stewart (sixth of the year), tying it at 9-9 with 30 seconds left.
Vogt broke the 9-9 tie on a breakaway goal with 7:21 left in the fourth period. That was all they needed as Minson and the Spartan defense went to work, shutting out the Sun Devils for the 10-9 win. Minson picked up five saves in the fourth period, including two when the Spartans were short-handed.
Minson finished with 12 saves in the cage for San Jose State while Harvey recorded five in the first half for Arizona State and Young picked up four in the second half for ASU. The Sun Devils' Harris won all four sprints.