WATER POLO — The No. 16 UCSD women’s water polo team used
the momentum from its last win over No. 13 UC Santa Barbara to post two
conference victories at home over the weekend. The Tritons won their first game
on March 1 against Cal State San Bernardino by a score of 7-5 before finishing
the day with a 10-7 victory over Pomona-Pitzer. The two wins over unranked
opponents improve UCSD’s record to 7-10 overall.

The Tritons had several chances to score in the opening
minutes against Pomona-Pitzer, but struggled to put the ball in the cage. They
drew their first ejection with 6:50
left in the first quarter, but were unable to convert on any of their three
attempts on goal. For much of the first quarter, UCSD made the Pomona-Pitzer
goalkeeper’s job easy as the crossbar blocked most of the Tritons’ shot
attempts.

Head coach Larry Sanders praised his water polo team’s defense in two wins over Cal State Bakersfield and Pomona-Pitzer on March 1 that improve the No. 16 Tritons’ overall season record to 7-10. (Erik Jepsen/Guardian)

The scoreless tie was finally broken as senior two-meter
Judy Emaus used her weak hand to get around a Sagehen defender and score a
counterattack goal with 3:17 left in
the quarter. Emaus quickly put the Tritons up 2-0 with another counterattack
goal on UCSD’s next possession.

UCSD’s defense, backed by senior goalkeeper Kim Hockett,
held the Sagehens scoreless for the entire first quarter, successfully fronting
Pomona-Pitzer’s two-meter and getting steals on the perimeter. The Tritons
added another goal on senior utility Nicole Hermann’s six-on-five goal with
less than a minute left in the first period to give UCSD a 3-0 lead.

The second quarter was dominated by defense with
Pomona-Pitzer disrupting the Triton offense by crashing at the two-meters once
the Tritons passed the ball inside. Hockett impressively defended the goal for
the Tritons, blocking a Pomona-Pitzer shot attempt on the Sagehens’
six-on-five. With 3:05 left in the
half, Hockett blocked a five-meter penalty shot to preserve the Tritons’ 3-0
lead. However, the Sagehens finally took advantage of a UCSD ejection to score
their first goal of the game and cut the Tritons’ lead to 3-1 with 2:28 left in the half.

With the Tritons unable to answer back before the half, the
Sagehens remained only two goals behind the Tritons heading into the third
quarter. Pomona-Pitzer took advantage of another six-on-five advantage with 5:58 left in the third quarter to score its
second goal of the game and cut the Tritons’ lead to 3-2.

Following a double ejection and another ejection drawn by
Emaus, sophomore attacker Audra Bloom scored on a five-on-four UCSD advantage
that gave the Tritons a 4-2 lead. After Pomona-Pitzer answered back with a
score, the Tritons added a goal apiece from sophomore two-meter defender Emilia
Halmay and Emaus to push UCSD’s lead to 6-3 at the end of the third period.

The Tritons cruised through the fourth quarter, using their
bench players and not allowing the Sagehens to get back into the game. Scores
from junior attacker Sydney Gstettenbauer and Hermann early in the period
secured the win for the Tritons.

“We played defense really well which is why we win games,”
head coach Larry Sanders said. “We need the killer instinct to put the ball in
the cage. We need to play better on offense.”

Emaus had little trouble offensively in the game, leading
Triton scoring with four goals to help give UCSD its third straight win.

UCSD used a balanced attack to defeat Cal State Bakersfield
earlier in the day. The Tritons jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter
over the Roadrunners and maintained the lead for the entire game, playing solid
defense and putting away goals with consistency.

With less than two minutes left in the game, the Roadrunners
netted a goal to cut the Tritons lead to 6-5. But Bloom answered back with a
six-on-five score to help the Tritons hold on and win by a final score of 7-5.

Emaus led the scoring with two goals in a game that featured
scores from five different Tritons. The victory was also UCSD’s 400th in the
program’s history.

“We knew we needed two wins and we did what we needed to do
as a team,” Hermann said.

UCSD’s next game will come against No. 6 UC Davis at the
two-day Loyola Marymount Tournament in Los Angeles
starting March 7. The Tritons will then have a rematch against Cal State
Bakersfield before playing against Sonoma
State University
and Santa Clara University.

“It’s going to be a big weekend for us,” Hermann said. “We
have a chance to go 4-0 and prove that we’re a force to be reckoned with in the
conference.”