With less than a month left in their regular season, the Tritons held tight against Cal State San Bernardino and Brown University on April 4. And the No. 17 UCSD women’s water-polo team could not have picked a better juncture of the season to hit their stride.
Senior utility Stephanie Heinrich scored five goals and sophomore two-meter Kirsten Bates added two more, earning the team its sixth consecutive victory: a 11-7 win over No. 20 Brown University. Heinrich had also put in the go-ahead goal earlier in the day against San Bernardino, helping the Tritons to a 6-3 victory.
Heinrich scored four goals in the first four minutes of the game, and Brown was never able to recover.
“Stephanie Heinrich set the tone immediately as the senior team captain,” head coach Brad Kreutzkamp said. “Four goals on four shots to start the game let everyone know that she meant business — and that attitude carries over to the rest of the team.”
UCSD led by as many as six goals in the third period, but Brown netted three straight goals in the fourth to cut the Triton lead to 10-7 with six minutes remaining. However, the Triton defenders would not allow anything past them for the rest of the game, and Bates added her second goal with 36 seconds remaining as the Tritons held on for the win.
Seniors Sarah Glick and Lauren Presant led Brown with two goals apeice.
The Bears’ defeat leaves them at 18-7 overall for the season.
Against San Bernardino, the Tritons fell behind 3-2 after the first period, but scored the final four goals of the match to seal the win.
“Our theory all year long has been that any team can beat anybody on any day,” Kreutzkamp said. “That game was an example of how we can end on the wrong end of that. But, thankfully, our defense kept us in the game until our offense woke up in the fourth quarter.”
The Tritons were unable to score for nearly 20 minutes before junior utility TC Coles scored her first goal at UCSD to tie the game with 1:20 remaining in the third period. Heinrich then scored with 6:58 remaining, and Bates and junior attacker Hanalei Crowell added late insurance goals to finish off San Bernardino.
Redshirt freshman Misty Vu scored two goals for the Coyotes, who dropped to 13-16 on the season.
The Tritons have a busy weekend ahead of them in Northern California. The team will play Cal State East Bay on April 9, then compete in the Santa Clara Invitational on April 10 and April 11.
Readers can contact Liam Rose at [email protected].