(San Jose, CA) No. 16 Sun Devil Water Polo (9-13, 1-5) dropped the opening round matchup in the MPSF Championship Tournament, 16-6, to No. 3 UCLA (20-5, 4-2) after the Bruins opened up scoring early on their first three possessions of the game. Graduate attacker Tina Doherty led the Sun Devil scorers with three goals and tallied her 8th hat trick of the season, and has reached the 40 goal mark for the fifth time in her career.
The Sun Devils will face off against SJSU– who lost their game against Stanford earlier today– at 11 am MST on Saturday, April 29. All tournament games can be viewed with a Game On Live Studio Subscription.
Itzahiana Baca started in goal for the Sun Devils after leading ASU to a win against San Jose State last weekend, but Baca allowed seven goals against the Bruins and tallied one save. Freshman goalkeeper Alexa Knutson replaced Baca to start the third quarter and recorded three saves.
Freshman attacker Juliette Dhalluin extended her scoring streak to 22 straight games and moved into second place for most goals as a freshman with 64 after her two goals today, and sits at 7th for goals in a single season in program history.
How it Happened:
The Sun Devils won the opening sprint, but a turnover on the first possession allowed UCLA momentum to score on their first three possessions for an early 3-0 lead to prompt an ASU timeout. ASU got on the board with three minutes remaining thanks to a goal from graduate attacker Tina Doherty. UCLA ended the frame with a 5-1 lead.
In the second quarter Luca Petovary scored with five minutes remaining after UCLA tacked on another goal, so the deficit remained four. After an offensive, UCLA extended their lead on the counter attack and went up 7-2. The three goals were the only scoring of the quarter, and ASU faced a five goal deficit at the half.
UCLA won the opening sprint to start the third quarter and found the back of the net to take an 8-2 lead. They did not score another goal until the halfway point in the quarter to lead 9-2. Dhoerty’s goal nullified another from the Bruins but it was a 10-3 game. Back-to-back goals came from Juliette Dhalluin to make it a 12-5 game after three.
UCLA made a goalie substitution to start the quarter, and tacked on another goal at the 6:05 mark to extend their lead to eight goals. Doherty notched a hat trick with a goal in the fourth, good for her eighth game on the season with 3+ goals and puts her at 40 on the year.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Claudia Schwartz
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