(Berkeley, CA) No. 9 Sun Devil Water Polo (6-7, 0-1) fell in the MPSF conference opener against No. 3 California (13-3, 1-0), 17-11. Luca Petovary led the way for ASU with four goals and two assists, as Juliette Dhalluin and Tina Doherty both achieved hat tricks against the Golden Bears. The Sun Devils posted 11 goals, five in the fourth period alone to post the third-most goals California has allowed all season. Dhalluin led the team with two assists on the day.
ASU faced the Golden Bears at the Stanford Invitational a month ago, and in the second contest the Sun Devils improved their offense by scoring eight more goals than the first time the two teams faced off against each other.
Luca Petovary/Sun Devil Athletics
The first quarter saw four goals by California and held the Sun Devils to one goal, courtesy of Luca Petovary. In the second frame, Doherty scored the Sun Devils second goal of the game 21 seconds into the contest, then Griffin added a power-play goal less than a minute later to cut the deficit to three. Despite the early goals, California would net five heading into halftime.
Coming back from break the offense was able to post three goals, two coming from Juliette Dhalluin, which included a power-play goal in the first 90 seconds of the first period. Her second goal of the frame came in the final two minutes.
Juliette Dhalluin/Sun Devil Athletics
The fourth quarter featured two goals from Doherty in less than a minute span, while Luca Petovary added two to her tally in the final 90 seconds to give her goals three and four on the day, helping the Sun Devil offense post double-digit goals against the Golden Bears for the first time in six matches.
The Sun Devils will return to Mona Plummer Aquatic Center to host the ASU Invitational where they’ll take on Harvard at 10:30 a.m. MST on ASU-Live-Stream-3.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Zach Wargo
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