WATER POLO ‘mdash; After three arduous days of play and several hours on the road, the women’s water polo team returned home empty-handed from the Western Water Polo Association championships, closing the door on a difficult season that saw one of its star players suffer a season-ending injury halfway through the year. The Tritons went into this past weekend seeded fourth in conference, but after a tough first-round loss to fifth-seeded Sonoma State University on Friday, UCSD immediately fell into the losers’ bracket and were held to finishing no higher than fifth place. The Tritons did sweep their final two opponents to seal the victory in the consolation championship tournament, but the finish was bittersweet for UCSD, which had its hopes set on an NCAA tournament berth.
‘It was disappointing,’ senior captain Sydney Gstettenbauer said. ‘We were definitely hoping to do better than we did. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but we would have liked to finish higher.’
In the consolation championship game, the Tritons were pitted against Colorado State University, a team they had beaten just three weeks before by one goal. The Tritons sought to compensate for their poor performance on the first day, and were looking to prove themselves capable of stronger opposition. In her last game as a Triton, Gstettenbauer played with emotion and determination, dedicated to finishing her UCSD career with pride. In the faceoff with Colorado State, Gstettenbauer piled on nine goals in the Tritons’ 14-9 drubbing, bringing her year total to 84 and tying a 1995 school record.
‘It was great getting the record,’ Gstettenbauer said. ‘We did some really good things [in the game].’
The Rams took a 3-2 lead in the first, but the Tritons, with plenty of experience playing from behind, outscored the Rams 4-1 in the secondperiod to take the lead. Instead of letting up in the second half, the Tritons buckled down and topped their second-quarter performance, outscoring the Rams 5-1 in the third.
‘We just kind of came together for those last games,’ junior captain and goalkeeper Markayla Quayne said. ‘We were mad about losing early and we wanted to finish strong.’
Gstettenbauer turned on the afterburners in the quarter, scoring seven of her nine goals in the second half, almost willing UCSD to victory at the end of the game. With the score at 11-5 starting the third, victory was all but assured for the Tritons. Both teams exchanged a series of goals, but the six-go
al deficit that the Rams had accumulated was too great of a barrier to overcome. The Tritons took their place in the conference championships confident about the finish.
‘We were a little emotional in the beginning after losing so bad the first day, but we knew what we needed to do and we just managed to finish strong,’ junior utility Stephanie Heinrich said.
On Saturday afternoon, the Tritons faced off against Cal State Monterey Bay, which also lost its first-round game. UCSD jumped to a quick lead over the Otters in the first quarter thanks to the strong play of freshman attacker Jessica Tran. Freshman two-meter Kirsten Bates and senior utility Bridgette Bugay also scored in the quarter, giving the Tritons a 4-0 lead. UCSD continued the offensive onslaught with Bates scoring a hat trick in the second quarter alone, while freshman utility Kelsey Schultz also scored, giving UCSD an 8-1 lead at halftime.
After watching her teammates stomp the Otters in the first three periods, Gstettenbauer came in to score two goals of her own in the second half as the Tritons cruised to an easy 14-4 victory.
In the first game of the tournament, the Tritons faced the Seawolves, who they played previously this season, squeaking out a 7-6 win.
In the first quarter, Gstettenbauer and Heinrich scored one goal apiece, but were matched by Sonoma State to tie the score at two. Junior attacker Audra Bloom scored first in the second period, but after that, the first half belonged to the Seawolves. Sonoma State scored four unanswered goals to finish the quarter with a 6-3 halftime lead before the Tritons knew what hit them.
‘Things just weren’t working for us this time, and they played really well,’ Quayne said.
The Seawolves continued their streak by scoring the first goal of the third before Tran answered back with a goal, making it 7-4.
Entering the fourth quarter down by three, the Tritons were staring down a big obstacle in their hopes of making it to the NCAA tournament. Desperately needing to get their offense back on track and slow down Sonoma State’s tempo in the fourth quarter, the Tritons were unable to manage as the Seawolves scored the first two goals before Gstettenbauer could muster her second goal. At the end of regulation, UCSD found itself on the losing end of a 9-5 game against a team it had already beaten this season.
The Tritons took fifth in the tournament, finishing their season at 12-20. UCSD struggled with losing early on one of the team’s strongest offensive and defensive players in junior utility Stephanie Bocian; the team spent much of the season playing with a shuffled lineup.
‘It was hard losing Stephanie to an injury during the season,’ Heinrich said. ‘She’s a good athlete and we struggled trying to find a replacement, but we worked through it.’
Readers can contact Tyler Nelson at [email protected].