WATER POLO ‘mdash; With another overpowering performance in the pool against the Coyotes, the No. 16 Tritons defeated Cal State San Bernardino for the 13th straight time on Feb. 14. While the game remained fairly even throughout the first quarter, UCSD came out in the second quarter and completely crushed the Coyotes, leading to a 14-6 victory that pulled UCSD’s record on the season to 3-3.
The Tritons and Coyotes battled for the lead in the first quarter, with neither team taking an advantage until junior attacker Audra Bloom, freshman two-meter Kristen Bates and freshman attacker Jessica Tran scored goals for UCSD with 1:48, 0:51 and 0:18 seconds left in the quarter, giving the Tritons a 6-3 lead after the first.
‘We kind of let up there in the first quarter,’ junior utility Stephanie Bocian said. ‘But we just got back together and played hard through the rest of the game.’
In the second quarter, the Tritons continued the surge that got them a strong lead in the last two minutes of the first period. Senior utility Bridgette Bugay scored the first goal of the second quarter a little over a minute in to set the tempo for the rest of the game. By the time the buzzer for halftime rang out, the scoreboard had the Tritons up 9-3.
Led defensively by junior goalkeeper Markayla Quane, UCSD stayed strong in the second half, once again shutting out the Coyotes for another quarter.
‘Our defense played extremely well in the second half and we came out ready to play,’ Bocian said.
The UCSD defense held the Coyotes scoreless from the middle of the first quarter until late in the fourth quarter. Offensively, senior attacker Sydney Gstettenbauer, Tran and junior utility Stephanie Heinrich netted three goals each in the blowout victory. The Tritons hope to build on their strong performance when they face off against No. 2 Stanford University in their first match in the UC Irvine tournament on Feb. 21.
‘We’ve got some stuff to work on this week in preparation for next Saturday,’ head coach Larry Sanders said. ‘We’re trying to prepare the girls for who they are playing against next weekend.’
In addition to facing the Cardinal, the Tritons will also be pitted against the toughest competition in the state at Irvine this coming weekend. Only the top 20 teams in the nation have received invitations to this tournament, so the Tritons will surely have their hands full.
‘We are just running some new situation drills in practice trying to prepare them for Stanford,’ Sanders said. ‘It’s going to be very tough.’
Readers can contact Tyler Nelson at [email protected].