LA JOLLA, Calif. - The No. 18 UC San Diego women's water polo team could not climb back from an early deficit against No. 6 Loyola Marymount at Canyonview Pool on Friday evening, falling 13-7 in a rematch of the 2010 WWPA tournament championship.
The loss marks the Tritons' first to a WWPA team, as UCSD falls to 6-5 overall and 3-1 in league play. The Lions improve to 8-2 overall and a perfect 3-0 in league play. LMU has won six of its last seven contests.
The teams traded goals to open play, however, LMU would score four unanswered goals to take a 5-1 advantage early in the second quarter. UCSD"s Felicia Orozco would rifle in a left-handed goal to the short post to make it 5-2 and Hanalei Crowell would score to make it 6-3, but the Lions would take a four-goal advantage into the half.
"We got off to a slow start and had to dig ourselves out of it a little bit today," said UCSD head coach Brad Kreutzkamp. "I was really happy about how we bounced back in that third quarter."
UCSD's Kirsten Bates connected on a back-hander with 3:28 to play in the third to make it 9-5 in favor of LMU. After the Lions' Mary Ann Campos was ejected, Orozco rocketed a shot past Kristine Cato to bring the Tritons within three. UCSD goalie Kristen Ostosh would make a point-blank save on LMU's next shot attempt, throwing an outlet pass to Jessica Tran. Tran found Melissa Bartow ahead of the pack and the freshman's teardrop beat Cato to make it 9-7.
Ostosh would make consecutive saves on LMU's next two attempts, giving UCSD possession of the ball and a chance to bring it within one by the end of the quarter. However, after a whistle by the referee, UCSD would lose the ball due to confusion of who's ball it actually was, giving LMU a breakaway. Crowell would be forced to foul Casey Flacks as she was one-on-one with Ostosh and Flacks converted on the free shot to make it 10-7 going into the final stanza.
"The confusion on our end of the pool after the whistle really hurt us in that situation," said Kreutzkamp. "I thought that was a little unfortunate but I thought we were still in a good position to have a chance to win the game at that point."
LMU scored three unanswered goals in the final frame and Cato came up with two big saves on Crowell and Orozco, as the Lions gave the Tritons their first WWPA loss by a six-goal margin.
Ostosh registered eight saves on the evening while Orozco led the team with three goals. Bartow followed with two scores.
UCSD's next competition will be at the UC Irvine Tournament February 26-27 at UCI. The Tritons will be back at home on March 11 against Cal State Bakersfield at 6:00 p.m.
