Bolstered by a desire to remain competitive, the UCSD women’s water polo team downed San Jose State on Feb. 20, 4-3, then rallied to a third-place finish at the UC Davis Shootout on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22. Their run featured electrifying wins over UC Santa Cruz, 14-4, UC Davis, 7-6, and Arizona State, 3-1, lifting the Tritons from the doldrums of underachievement, a high that even a 6-3 loss to San Diego State in the championship game couldn’t sour.
Since slumping to a 2-7 start, the Tritons have climbed back up the ranks of the nation’s best with a 6-8 record. The four-win performance featured three victories over opponents ranked higher than No. 17 UCSD, including a triumph over Western Water Polo Association at rival No. 14 UC Davis.
In addition to tripling their number of total wins in 2004, the Tritons offense experienced a revival of sorts, scoring 31 goals in five games, a marked improvement over the 47 tallied in the Tritons’ previous nine appearances. Despite a slow finish, senior two-meter defender Meris Bantilan-Smith and junior utility Tobi Lyman gave the flailing UCSD offense a jolt of life with 17 combined goals.
In a thrilling finish against UC Davis, the Tritons were even at 6-6 with time winding down. Lyman, deep in her own half, tossed up a lob that arched over the outstretched arms of Aggie goaltender Meggan Brownrigg into the far corner of the cage for a dramatic buzzer-beater, stunning the home crowd and leaving her teammates frozen in awe before rushing to celebrate the 7-6 victory.
“Tobi tossed up a beautiful lob. Watching the ball, I was thinking, ‘Wow, that’s got a good arc, and [Brownrigg] is out of position — it has a chance,’ and straight into the goal it went,” said senior goalie Stephanie Lombardo, who had seven saves in the match. “We just stood there, stunned.”
Lyman’s effort was a surprising finish to a see-saw match, typical for the UCSD-UC Davis rivalry, in which neither team led by more than one goal. It marked the second consecutive one-goal triumph over the Aggies, the first being a 6-5 win in the 2003 WWPA Championship semifinals.
By topping their conference rivals, the Tritons now hold a steadfast lead over the Aggies in the standings and seeding for the WWPA Championships. WWPA seeding is determined by a team’s overall record against conference opponents, including tournament matches.
Despite the finish, the Tritons proved in the second period that they could hold their own without luck. Down 2-1 after seven minutes, the Triton offense awoke from its slumber, scoring two goals — including one on a six-on-five opportunity — to draw the teams even at 4-4.
Then, with 20 seconds left in the half, junior driver Jessica Wong broke away on a counterattack and scored to give the Tritons a 4-3 lead at the half, swinging the momentum their way and silencing the Aggie faithful.
Lyman earned a hat trick, her first as a Triton, while Bantilan-Smith scored two and junior driver Jaemi Jackson added one goal to the effort. Tiffany Hodgens led the Aggies with three goals, while Brittany Russell scored two and Crisara Adams contributed one.
More important than the scoreline itself was the fact that UCSD was able to remain in contention after being down early. In their previous losses, the Tritons have had a tendency to go down early and play catch-up for the rest of the game.
Against UC Davis, however, head coach Larry Sanders credited his team for shaking the habit.
“We were being patient and not getting frustrated, executing the right defenses, looking for deeper opportunities, and scoring when we needed to,” Sanders said. “We’re steadily progressing with experience,”
UCSD finished 2-0 on Feb. 21, the first day of the UC Davis Shootout, having rolled over UC Santa Cruz, 14-4, earlier in the day. Once again, Bantilan-Smith and Lyman led the UCSD scoring, tallying four and three goals on the stat sheet, respectively. Emily Erskine’s three goals for the Banana Slugs were little consolation in a game where the Tritons raced out to a 7-2 lead at the half and an 11-3 margin by the fourth period. The early display of firepower allowed Sanders to make constant substitutions and rest the starters for the UC Davis game.
On Feb. 20 against No. 12 San Jose State, the Tritons displayed persistence in the face of defeat, going down 2-0 early in the first period but surging back to take a 4-3 win.
UCSD junior utility Courtney Clevenger responded to the two goals scored by San Jose State’s Deanna Lowry, notching a point of her own to cut the Spartan lead in half. The Tritons wrestled control of the match away from San Jose State by scoring three goals in the third, including two from Bantilan-Smith, who hit the back of the cage with 1:48 left to put the Tritons up for good at 4-2.
From there, UCSD stepped up the defense, taking its first substantial comeback win of the season, and discovering a newfound confidence that would only whet the appetite for continued success in Davis.
“The San Jose State game was a big one for our confidence,” Lombardo said. “It was a big deal for all of us because we were determined and kept our heads in the game.”
Working on a “high confidence level,” the Tritons took little time to assert their first-place aspirations on Feb. 22, dismissing No. 15 Arizona State, 3-1, in a battle of defensive wits and offensive malaise. The Tritons had many opportunities to extend their margin of victory, but stumbled to the finish, shooting only 3-for-23.
Clevenger picked up a deuce, while Bantilan-Smith nailed her ninth goal of the weekend. Lombardo also racked up nine saves.
Defensively, however, the Tritons matched the Sun Devils stroke-for-stroke, moving up and down the pool with speed and limiting ASU to only one goal and exacting revenge for an 8-3 defeat at the Michigan Invitational earlier in the season.
Still, Sanders was pleased with the results, favoring a sports mantra of persistence over statistics.
“It’s like that Byron Scott article from the ’80s: ‘Shoot ’em up, or sleep in the street,’” Sanders said. “I stressed this to the girls … If you’re in a slump, you keep shooting out of it.”
The win, coupled with San Diego State’s 9-4 success over the Sun Devils, set up a final showdown against the No. 5 Aztecs for the championship match. In their fifth and final game of a long weekend, the Tritons seemed dormant and flustered by the crosstown rivals, evident in the Aztecs’ 5-1 lead at the end of the third.
“We weren’t recognizing the best opportunities,” Sanders said. “We’d get off a deflected shot, put 35 more seconds on the shot clock, move things and take a shot with 30 seconds left on the clock instead of using all that time.”
The Triton offense stirred enough in the fourth quarter to mount an attack, cutting the lead to 5-3, but fell short in the end, settling for second place.
Lyman and freshman two-meter players Natalie Hockett and Rachel Bender each broke through to score in the loss.
“Winning would have been the icing on the cake,” Sanders said. “But I challenged the girls to come out fighting in the fourth, and I was proud of the finish.”
UCSD’s focus now is on improving their consistency in preparation for Stanford, their first opponent at the UC Santa Barbara Gaucho Invitational on Feb. 28 and Feb. 29.
“We figured out this weekend that we like to win games.” Lombardo said, “And we’re not going back to losing.”
