LA JOLLA, Calif. – Playing their first games in nearly nine months, the No. 9 UC San Diego Tritons split a pair of matches to open the 2022 campaign, falling in the final seconds of their first match, 9-8, to No. 23 Wagner before winning, 9-7, against No. 16 San Jose State on four unanswered goals.
Ciara Franke led the offense with seven goals on the day.
Both games were part of the UC Santa Barbara Invitational.
HOW IT HAPPENED
In the 9-8 loss to Wagner, the Tritons got out to a 3-1 lead in the first quarter with a pair of goals from Franke and a score for freshman
Lucia Doak, the first of her career.
Bennett Bugelli made five saves in the first quarter before being spelled by
Lexi Stahl in the second frame.
UC San Diego was outscored 4-3 in the second quarter, momentum that Wagner's defense was able to carry into the second half. The Tritons scored two goals in the second half to Wagner's five. Wagner netted the game-winner in the final seconds of the fourth quarter after blocking a UC San Diego shot.
Later in the day, the Tritons found themselves in another close match. With the score knotted at 4-4 at the end of the first half, San Jose State took a 7-5 lead in the final minute of the third quarter before UC San Diego's
Grayson Mix's goal, her second of the match, cut the lead to 7-6. The Tritons would score three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to pick up their first victory of the season.
QUOTABLE
"I would definitely say our defense is much further along than I thought it would be," said UC San Diego head coach
Brad Kreutzkamp. "With Bennett [Bugelli] in the cage and Ciara [Franke] at 2-meter D, that poses a very formidable 1-2 punch for every defensive possession."
TRITON TIDBITS
- Fab Freshman – Coach Kreutzkamp also noted the strong play of his freshmen in their first collegiate games. Lucia Doak and Courtney Okumura scored their first career goals against Wagner, with Okumura adding another two against San Jose State.
- Spreading the Love – Across both games, UC San Diego had seven different players score a goal.
- Records Set in Net – Goaltender Bennett Bugelli jumped up to fifth all-time in saves for the Tritons, eclipsing Makayla Quane, Kim Hockett, Jennifer Renwick, and Kaitlin Foe with her 12 saves in the loss to Wagner. Bugelli is up to 641 saves as a Triton, placing her behind Maryam Hadiashar's 697 saves (Bugelli's saves against San Jose State have not yet been recorded at the time of this article).
UP NEXT
No. 9 UC San Diego (1-1, 0-0 BW) vs. No. 19 Princeton (2-1)
Sunday, January 23 at 8:00 am (Non-conference)
UCSB Campus Pool
No. 9 UC San Diego (0-0, 0-0 BW) vs. No. 3 UCLA (3-0)
Sunday, January 23 at 2:45 pm (Non-conference)
UCSB Campus Pool
[There will be no live video or live stats for these matches. Each team is permitted 50 fans. UC San Diego's spectator list has already been submitted.]
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.
