WATER POLO ‘mdash; The Triton women ended their regular season against Chapman University on April 17 and squared off against crosstown rival No. 7 San Diego State the next day in their final two games of the year before playoffs. UCSD laid a severe beat down on the Panthers of Chapman, but were overwhelmed by the Aztecs in the same weekend, entering the postseason after yielding mixed results in its final weekend.
The Tritons visited San Diego State to take on the team that had beaten them 16-6 earlier in the season at the UC Santa Barbara Invitational Tournament.
The Tritons entered the annual Harper Cup looking for revenge and a chance to exonerate themselves from their earlier loss. As expected, the Aztecs stormed out to a quick lead. But the 7-1 deficit the Tritons were looking at after the first quarter was more than they anticipated.
‘They came out strong,’ junior hole set Stephanie Heinrich said. ‘We were expecting them to come out fast, and we just weren’t ready.’
UCSD managed to hold the Aztecs in check through the remainder of the game, playing even with them and even outscoring the Aztecs in the second quarter. Senior captain Sydney Gstettenbauer played well through the match, scoring four times to provide some hope that UCSD’s key performer will continue her strong play into conference finals this weekend. Despite the early deficit, the Tritons played well through the rest of the match, holding the Aztecs to seven runs ‘mdash; their first-quarter output ‘mdash; throughout the final three periods of the game.
‘We’ve been playing together for a large part of the year, and we’re finally getting adjusted to each other,’ Heinrich said. ‘We had a little more experience from the last time we played them.’
The Tritons also played Chapman on Friday and had their greatest offensive production of the season, using a balanced attack to defeat the Panthers by a whopping 20-8 margin.
Nine Tritons registered goals in the game and UCSD scored five goals in each quarter, dominating from start to finish, leading in the match against the Panthers from the get go.
‘It was fun playing Chapman,’ Heinrich said. ‘We got to run some stuff we only usually get to run in practice. We definitely got in a lot of good experience for conference championships.’
In the matchup, Gstettenbauer scored seven goals while Heinrich and junior attacker Audra Bloom had solid games as well, each recording hat tricks.
With the season winding down, the Tritons must now set their sights on the conference championships this weekend. The Tritons have a 10-19 overall record and, as the No. 4 seed, will face off against fifth-seeded Sonoma State University in the first round of the Western Water Polo Association tournament.
‘We’re just getting ready for conference,’ head Coach Larry Sanders said. ‘We’re not worried about who we have to play, we just have to play our game.’
The Tritons will travel to Santa Clara for conference championships on Friday and will play through Sunday for seeding in the NCAA tournament. The winner of the WWPA tournament receives an automatic bid to the national tournament. ‘ ‘ ‘ Readers can contact Tyler Nelson at [email protected].