LA JOLLA, Calif. - The UC San Diego women's water polo team earned its first victory of the 2010 season Saturday, topping the Marist Red Foxes 8-4 behind three second-quarter scores from junior Felicia Orozco.

"It feels good," Tritons' head coach Brad Kreutzkamp said. "It feels redeeming in that the work they've been putting in gets them what they deserve - a win. It starts with defense. Markayla [Quane] had 13 blocks and we only gave up one goal per quarter. The difference for the first game was cutting down on mistakes. We had 15 turnovers that match and only eight in this one."

The UCSD squad (1-5) will now play at 10:40 a.m. Sunday as part of the two-day Triton Invitational. The Tritons' Sunday morning opponent will be Long Beach St.

UCSD jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter with goals from freshman Kim McComas and junior Hanalei Crowell. With 39 seconds left on the clock, Marist cut the advantage to 2-1 on a Rosie Pauli score.

After the two teams traded goals during the early part of the second quarter, the Tritons reeled off four straight scores to take a 7-2 advantage at the game's midway point. During that run, Stephanie Bocian added a goal in addition to Orozco's three.

A defensive struggle ensued for the remainder of the match as senior goalkeeper Markayla Quane continued to make key saves. Marist managed to net a third-quarter score and a goal at the 5:16 mark in the fourth to cut the lead to 7-4 though as UCSD went scoreless temporarily. The Tritons' lead proved to be too large though as a late fourth-quarter UCSD score closed the books on the 8-4 win.