WATER POLO ‘mdash; The women’s water polo team has experienced its share of ups and downs over the past several weeks. Although the Tritons scored a 9-7 victory over Brown University, they lost a disappointing 12-6 decision at No. 19 Cal State Bakersfield last weekend. The team followed with back-to-back home-game losses against Stanford University and the University of Southern California, the top two teams in the nation. UCSD managed to defeat Occidental University by a 9-7 margin on March 12.
With its most recent match this weekend, UCSD took on Brown University in Bakersfield and claimed a tight victory. Falling behind 2-0 early in the first quarter, the Tr
itons mustered an offensive charge and regained momentum before halftime with two goals, trimming the deficit to 3-2. In a few recent matches, Tritons have come heartbreakingly close to the lead at halftime, but have been unable to follow through for the win.
The tables turned as UCSD stormed out of halftime with senior captain Sydney Gstettenbauer and freshman attacker Jessica Tran scoring unanswered goals, giving the Tritons the lead at 4-3. The teams engaged in back-and-forth scoring until the match stood tied at six with one minute left in the third. Freshman hole set Kirsten Bates scored the seventh goal for the Tritons just before the end of the period, giving UCSD the lead for good. Gstettenbauer and sophomore attacker Hanalei Crowell then scored back-to-back goals,’ giving the Tritons a three-goal lead before Brown could fight back, ending the game at 9-7.
‘It felt good to get the win,’ junior utility Stephanie Heinrich said. ‘We were a little upset about our loss earlier in the day to Bakersfield, which is why we fell a little early. But it was good to make the comeback.’
Just a few hours prior, the Tritons faced Cal State Bakersfield in the Roadrunners’ home pool with less success. The Tritons and Roadrunners fared evenly, with the halftime score tied at four. Unfortunately, the Tritons were unable to keep up with the Roadrunners as they had in the first half, giving up eight goals in the second while only netting two of their own. The Roadrunners kept the Tritons’ leading scorer Gstettenbauer in check, relegating her to a lone goal.
‘We just broke down against Bakersfield,’ Heinrich said. ‘It wasn’t a great game for us. There were a lot of things that we should have done that we didn’t do, and we just made a lot of mistakes.’
Against the No. 2 University of Southern California, the Tritons faced an impressive offensive force. The Trojans have a 17-1 record and are perfect in conference play, largely due to a prolific offense that averages over 13 goals per game. They started fast and never looked back, storming out to a 6-0 lead in the first quarter. The Tritons finally got on the board in the second when Heinrich and Gstettenbauer each scored to bring the score to 6-2. But the Trojans quickly squashed any hope of a comeback when they scored the next five goals of the quarter to take an 11-2 lead into halftime.
‘It was really tough playing the top two teams in the nation back to back,’ Heinrich said of UCSD’s games against the University of Southern California and Stanford University.
Out of halftime, the Tritons’ defense slowed the Trojans down, holding them to four goals in the third quarter, but the Tritons could only muster three goals. After a 6-0 shutout in the final period, the Trojans swam away with a 21-5 victory in the Tritons’ home pool.
The University of Southern California wasn’t the only powerful opponent the Tritons faced during spring break. UCSD began its week with a loss to top-ranked Stanford University.
Despite the daunting task, the Tritons played incredibly well early in the game, taking a two-goal lead in the first quarter before giving up three to end the period.
‘It felt good taking an early lead on Stanford,’ junior utility Stephanie Bocian said. ‘We really took them off their mark and made them wary.’
The Tritons tied the game at three with 5:38 remaining in the second quarter. From that point on, however, the Cardinal could not be stopped, scoring another three goals to take a 6-3 lead into halftime.
‘It was a little overwhelming playing such a high-ranked team in Stanford,’ Bocian said. ‘We just played like we had nothing to lose.’
After a strong start, the Triton offense suffered, scoring only two goals in the second half, falling to Stanford 11-5.
The Tritons did get a taste of victory to begin their three game home stretch, putting Occidental away despite a poor effort. The win might have gone the other way if Gstettenbauer and senior utility Bridgette Bugay had not had standout games, both scoring three goals and stepping up on defense in the fourth.
‘It was a little disappointing to see,’ head coach Larry Sanders said. ‘We played really well in the tournament last weekend, and I thought that we would have come and played a little better.’
The first quarter was all UCSD’ with Gstettenbauer striking first in the game, and the Tritons playing well defensively, holding Occidental to a lone goal. UCSD swam with vigor early on, jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the first period. The Triton offense was too much for the Tigers to contain and its defense too fast for the Tigers to beat. But in the second quarter, the Tritons slowed down defensively, giving up several fast-break opportunities and penalty shots.
‘Sometimes when we play a team that we’re supposed to be better than physically, we don’t play as well as we should,’ Heinrich said. ‘It happens in a lot of sports, and we just need to focus and play.’
On offense, the Tritons made poor decisions and bad passes that cost them great scoring opportunities. The second quarter progressed slowly and the Tritons only managed to find the back of the net once, taking a 5-3 lead into intermission.
Coming out of the break, Bugay scored the first two goals of the third quarter to give the Tritons a four goal advantage. UCSD played another great defensive quarter, holding Occidental to a single goal and dominating the time of possession. Capping off the quarter, sophomore hole set Janice Aguilar turned her defender around to score at the last second to close the third, bringing the score to 8-4.
Unfortunately, UCSD was unable to use its impressive play to garner much momentum in the fourth quarter, struggling both offensively and defensively to make things interesting.
Gstettenbauer played a terrific fourth quarter, scoring the Tritons’ lone goal to seal the victory and dominating on defense, covering the ball aggressively and preventing several shots. Defense continued to dominate the second half of the fourth quarter, as no team could muster a goal during the last four minutes. Despite missing a lot of great opportunities to put the game away early, the Tritons held on for the 9-7 win.
‘ The Tritons will travel next to the Santa Clara Invitational, where they will begin a round of four games, facing off against San Jose State University on April 4 at 10:40 a.m.
Readers can contact Tyler Nelson at [email protected].