LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The No. 15 UC San Diego women's water polo team lost a close match to No. 14 Long Beach State Sunday morning but rebounded later in the day with a spectacular overtime win against No. 16 Cal State Northridge to claim 7th place.
In the early game the Tritons again had to battle an early deficit after going down 3-0 to Long Beach State. Junior Sydney Gstettebauer put her team on the board with 1:14 remaining in the opening quarter and the period ended with LBSU up 4-1.
The two squads scored one goal apiece in the next quarter as both defenses held tough. UCSD pulled to within a 6-5 score late in the third quarter behind two more goals from Gstettenbauer. Long Beach State added one of its own to keep a 7-5 lead before the final quarter.
The teams alternated goals through the first few minutes of the final period and at the midway point, the score stood in LBSU's favor 8-7. Long Beach State secured the victory, 10-7, with two late goals. Gstettenbauer finished with four goals while senior Nicole Hermann added three scores for UCSB.
The loss matched the Tritons up with Cal State Northridge in an afternoon game to compete for the tournament's 7th place. CSUN entered the game with an opening 8-7 win versus Santa Clara followed up by losses to UC Davis and San Diego State.
UCSD allowed a goal 45 seconds into the game but fought back and forth with CSUN keeping the score close throughout the contest. The Tritons rallied back to tie the game at three different times over the first three quarters. Even though UCSD's offense dominated the time of possession in the fourth quarter and put seven shots on goal in that time, the Matadors played stellar defense as neither team could score and the game moved into overtime.
Triton senior Judy Emaus, with her back facing the goal, whirled her second score of the contest into the net at the 2:01 mark in the first overtime period. With just 11 seconds remaining in the second overtime, a CSUN player moved past the last line of UCSD defense and tossed in the game-tying score.
The match progressed into sudden death and the defenses raised their play even higher. With the clock at 0:21.2, a long shot from Gstettenbauer deflected off a Matador defender and into the back of the night and the Tritons pulled out the 8-7 victory.
The overtime goal from Gstettenbauer was her third of the game and 14th of the invitational, both team highs.
UCSD will return to action next Saturday at 11 a.m. to face off against Cal State San Bernardino.
