WATER POLO ‘mdash; It was another tough weekend, featuring fierce competition and arduous feats for the UCSD women’s water polo team. The Tritons played in the Santa Clara Invitational Tournament, where they faced off against the likes of No. 6 San Jose State and conference opponents Sonoma State, Colorado State and Santa Clara University during a two-day event. The Tritons experienced varied levels of success and defeat in the tournament and emerged with a 2-2 record, bringing their season record to 9-16. The Tritons dropped an early match to San Jose State 11-17, but defeated Sonoma State later that day 7-6. On Sunday, the Tritons defeated Colorado State 8-7, but fell prey to the host Santa Clara Broncos, 10-7.
In their most recent match, the Tritons dueled the Broncos in a tight contest; neither team was capable of breaking free. The Tritons were down 2-1 after the first quarter and 5-4 at the half, but after a quick halftime pep talk the Tritons stormed back. The teams continued to battle vigorously for position through the third quarter, relying on outside shooting.
After scoring to take the lead at the end of the third, the Broncos converted two unanswered goals to break out of the fourth and the Tritons were unable to recover from the brief lapse in judgment to make up the deficit. The Tritons’ top two hole set defenders received majors nearing the end of the game, forcing them to be kicked out of the game. The Broncos won 10-7 to close the tournament for the Tritons in a tight game in which the Tritons yet again faltered.
‘We lost our two main two-meter defenders and we had to make due from there,’ head coach Larry Sanders said. ‘We really didn’t have great middle presence when our two defenders were kicked out.’
The Tritons did experience some success on Sunday in their encounter with the Colorado State Rams. In the matchup with their out-of-state conference opponent, the Tritons were tied 2-2 with the Rams at halftime, and the scoring was just getting started.
The Tritons allowed the first goal and fell behind 3-2, but were wary of their second-half falters in past performances and sought to curb those tendencies. Junior utility Stephanie Heinrich scored two unanswered goals to give the Tritons a 4-3 lead halfway through the third quarter, and freshman attacker Jessica Tran scored less than one minute later to give UCSD the largest lead of the game in this highly contested match. Colorado State fought back to tie
the game with two immediate unanswered goals, but sophomore utility Nadine Shnayderman scored her second goal of the game to give the Tritons the lead for good. In the fourth quarter, senior captain Sydney Gstettenbauer and freshman hole set Kirsten Bates sealed the 8-7 Triton victory.
‘It felt good to get some division wins,’ Sanders said. ‘We know where we stand in our division and it felt good to see how our competition will play out.’
In Saturday’s action, Gstettenbauer carried the Tritons in their victory over Sonoma State in a tight game. The Tritons held a slight advantage in the high-scoring first half, but couldn’t pull away for a substantial advantage, ending the half with a 5-4 lead.
In the third, Gstettenbauer scored to give the Tritons a two-goal lead, but the Seawolves returned the favor to cut their deficit back to one. Gstettenbauer once again had an answer, scoring what proved to be the game winner early in the fourth quarter.
‘This will affect our seeding in the conference tournament and it has an impact on who we play in the future,’ Heinrich said.
In their first game of the tournament, the Tritons were not ready for what San Jose State was bringing, and fell behind 5-1 in the first quarter.
‘We just didn’t expect what happened,’ Heinrich said. ‘They came out fast and we just tried to catch up.’ The game could have easily turned into disaster after the appalling first quarter, but UCSD came out more prepared in the second quarter after seeing the Spartans’ potential. The Tritons scored six times in the second quarter and drew the game into manageable terrain, trailing 10-7 at halftime.
‘We mixed up our defense and were prepared for what they were doing in the second quarter,’ Heinrich said.
Heinrich went on a scoring frenzy in the game, scoring two of the Tritons goals in the second and taking four goals overall in the game. Despite her impressive performance, the Triton defense could not contain the Spartans attack force at any point in the game ‘mdash; giving up a six-goal third quarter ‘mdash; while the Triton offense could only score twice, as San Jose State took a demanding 16-9 lead into the last period, swimming away with a final 17-11 victory.
‘We still need to fix some things and improve for the future,’ junior goalkeeper Markayla Quane said. ‘We have more conference games coming up so we need to get better for those.’
The Tritons face off against conference rival Loyola Marymount University tonight at Canyonview Pool at 6 p.m. With a victory, the Tritons could shake up the conference standings and build up heavy steam heading into the playoffs on April 25.
‘We’re ranked fourth in our conference and they’re ranked second, so we’ll have to play hard to beat them,’ Sanders said. ‘It all comes down to who wants it more.’
Readers can contact Tyler Nelson at [email protected].