LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The No. 15 UC San Diego women's water polo team lost a tough contest Thursday night to the No. 10 Hartwick Hawks, 15-9.
The Tritons, despite being down 4-0 at the end of the first quarter, battled back and cut the Hartwick lead to 10-8 with five minutes remaining in the game. The Hawks closed out the game on a 5-1 run though, picking up their first victory of 2008.
Junior attacker Sydney Gstettenbauer led UCSD with four goals, including two in the second quarter to help the Tritons creep back to within striking distance. Janice Aguilar, a redshirt freshman from San Diego, added two scores for UCSD.
After Hartwick took a 6-3 lead into halftime and added another point just 23 seconds into the third quarter, Gstettenbauer put one in the back of the net while UCSD's offense had an extra attacker, making the score 7-4. Senior Nicole Hermann earned a chance at a penalty shot a couple minutes later but Hartwick freshman goalie Jessica Dorman made a nice stop to keep the Tritons off the scoreboard on that opportunity.
The Hawks converted on both of their penalty shots and three different Hartwick players earned hat tricks ? Kaitlin Leonard, Megan Dahl-Smith and Ellen Sevigny. The Tritons dropped to 1-5 on the season while the Hawks improved to 1-3.
UCSD and Hartwick will both compete in the 16-team Triton Invitational this weekend to be held at the Canyonview Pool. The Tritons are scheduled to take on Indiana University in their opening game at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday.
