A promising start fizzled into disappointment for the No. 14 UCSD womens’ water polo team: After handily defeating No. 15 Hartwick College, 7-6, for its first win of the young season, the Tritons suffered losses to No. 4 Loyola Marymount, No. 9 UC Santa Barbara and No. 13 UC Davis to finish sixth out of a field of 12 at the Triton Invitational, held Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 at Canyonview Pool.
The overall finish wasn’t so disappointing for the Tritons (1-3, 0-2 Western Water Polo Association) except for that, had the team won two close decisions, it could just as easily have gone 3-1. The problem was that when either UCSD’s sturdy defense or virile attack roared, the other would falter. The defense controlled much of the tempo in the 4-3 loss to UC Davis, but the offense could not pull away from the Aggies. Likewise, senior driver Courtney Clevenger scored three goals in the 9-2 loss to Loyola Marymount and in the 9-5 loss to UC Santa Barbara, but the defense was unable to keep the Tritons within striking distance.
“This weekend we were inconsistent,” UCSD head coach Larry Sanders said. “We were doing one thing or another. Against UCSB, our defense wasn’t in sync but our offense was good, while against Davis, our defense was much better but our offense seemed to misfire.”
When finally combined, though, the UCSD attack can be very potent, as exhibited in the Hartwick, N.Y., match on Feb. 5. Sophomore two-meter Natalie Hockett gave the Tritons the victory with a power-play goal with 1 minute, 5 seconds left in the contest, ending a back-and-forth tussle that began with a Clevenger goal only 1:08 into the game.
After Hartwick’s Kate Chambers tied the score at 6-6 with 2:03 remaining and an ejection that left the Tritons with a six-on-five advantage, Hockett received a swift pass in front of the net and fired the ball into the cage for her first goal of the season. Hockett’s score on a power play was a sign of progress for the Tritons, who had failed to convert some late advantages in their 5-4 loss to No. 12 Michigan on Feb. 3.
“We played solid ball against Hartwick, and the fact that we scored on a six-on-five was a definite improvement from what we did against Michigan. This time it won us the game,” Sanders said.
UCSD’s only deficit of the game lasted one minute, 15 seconds, after Hartwick’s Megan Dahl-Smith grabbed the ball from three meters out, leaned away from UCSD sophomore two-meter Britta Nordstrom and lobbed it into the net for a 3-2 lead with 1:13 left in the second period. But with two seconds left before halftime, UCSD senior two-meter Lindsay Grossman put the ball past goaltender Olivia Colebourne to deflate Hartwick’s momentum heading into the locker room.
Within the span of a minute shortly after the half, senior driver Tobi Lyman and sophomore two-meter Sarah Bajorek gave UCSD a two-goal cushion, the largest of the contest. With a six-on-five advantage following Aliria Munoz’s ejection, Lyman fired a shot into the top corner of the cage for her fourth goal in two days. Just 1:01 later, Bajorek opened up the lead with a shot from a few meters out.
“We were finishing our opportunities and capitalizing, getting more comfortable after the first game jitters,” said senior driver Jessica Wong who had a goal in the match. “Any win that boosts your confidence is a good win.”
Wong scored UCSD’s first goal in its match against WWPA rival Loyola Marymount, but only after the Lions had raced out to a 4-0 lead. Wong’s tally brought the Tritons to within three before the half, but Loyola Marymount’s Katie Hicks restored the Lions’ advantage early in the third period. The Tritons responded with a Clevenger goal with 4:50 left in the period, but Hicks scored again just 17 seconds later to seal the deal. Six of the Lions’ goals came on six-on-five advantages; in comparison, the Tritons only went 2-for-11 on the power play.
The Tritons struck first in their match against UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 6 with a Clevenger goal. The Gauchos came back with three scores to close out the first quarter and another by Sarah Kovach before junior two meter player Kristen Frazer converted a man-up advantage with 1:07 left in the half to reduce the deficit. From the near right corner of the pool, Wong fired a pass through the UC Santa Barbara defense that landed right on the fingertips of Frazer, who pushed the ball into the top left corner, past the outstretched arms of the Gaucho goaltender.
But before the Tritons could regain any momentum, the Gauchos responded with three more unanswered goals in the third period. Lyman, Hockett and Clevenger would each notch a goal in the second half, but the damage was already done for the Tritons, who had trouble getting their defense in sync throughout the match.
“We were making mistakes that good teams would be able to capitalize on,” Sanders said. “Seeing that UC Santa Barbara is a good team, it was no surprise that they were able to score that many points on us, when really, our offense was ticking enough to keep up with them.”
Against WWPA rival UC Davis, the defensive attack greatly improved, holding the Aggies to only four goals, their second-lowest offensive output of the season. And for most of the game, it seemed that the offensive attack would not suffer the same fate the defense did in the previous match, as Clevenger and Lyman scored at the 5:14 and 2:52 marks, respectively, in the second period to send both teams into the half tied at two apiece.
In the second half, however, Christi Raycraft and Katherine O’Rourke put two more points on the scoreboard, the second goal coming with 4:02 left in the game, without any response from the weekend-weary Tritons. Wong finally got started late with her score at the 1:43 mark, but the Aggies stifled the UCSD attack long enough to escape with the close victory.
“We had two games Sunday we could have won,” Sanders said. “Now it’s up to us to rebound in practice and try to be more consistent on both sides of the pool.”
The competition only gets stronger for the Tritons, who will travel up the coast on Feb. 12 to tangle with the No. 5 Long Beach State 49ers. Game time is at noon.
