UCLA
Arizona State
Bruins Burn Sun Devils in MPSF Quarters
April 27, 2018 | Women's Water Polo
BERKELEY, Calif. โ The fourth-seeded UCLA women's water polo team turned in a resounding victory to ring in the postseason, defeating No. 5 Arizona State by a 14-4 score at Spieker Aquatics Complex.
Maddie Musselman led the Bruins with three goals, while Bronte Halligan, Lexi Liebowitz and Lizette Rozeboom each turned in a multi-goal performance of her own. Nine different Bruins scored in all. Carlee Kapana tallied six saves in three-plus quarters of action and Hannah Storum turned away two shots without surrendering a goal.
UCLA wasted no time getting on the board, as Myna Simmons broke through on the team's opening possession (7:11). The next time down, fellow freshman Liebowitz showed no hesitancy in her first postseason appearance, doubling the Bruin lead to 2-0 with a scoring strike (6:20). Just 1:20 later, the Danville, Calif. native registered her fourth career multi-goal game to continue the opening-quarter scoring spree.
Next up was Musselman, who took advantage of an extra-player opportunity at 3:36. Halligan made it five straight at 2:12, before Arizona State got on the board with two in a row as the clock moved past the one-minute mark. Musselman quickly nixed any hopes of a Sun Devil rally, though, sending the teams to their first break with her second goal (0:04).
Kapana and Arizona State's Mia Rycraw each turned away two shots in the second quarter, as both teams struggled to get going. Devin Grab would get the Bruins going again at 4:49 with her 24th of the campaign, before Halligan continued the run with her second at 2:44. The Sun Devils' Maud Koopman stopped the Bruin run at three and sent the game to the half at 8-3 (2:13).
The second half was more of the same, as Lizette Rozeboom notched her first score at 5:31 to triple the Sun Devil output. Musselman recorded her seventh hat trick of the season to put the Bruins into double digits at 4:19 and establish the first seven-goal lead of the day. Kapana recorded three saves in the frame and would give up just one goalโthe Sun Devils' final successful conversion of the afternoon.
Rozeboom joined Musselman in the 40-goal club with 6:37 to go in the final quarter. Grace Reego (4:57), Roxy Wheaton (2:38) and Kelsey Blacker (1:49) tacked on three more to put a bow on the win, which advanced the Bruins into Saturday's first semifinal, a 12:45 showdown with top-seeded USC.
No. 4 UCLA 14, No. 5 Arizona State 4
No. 5 Arizona State (2, 1, 1, 0 โ 4)
GOALS: Casas, Koopman, Mihailovic, Rogge โ 1
SAVES: Rycraw โ 7
No. 4 UCLA (6, 2, 2, 4 โ 14)
GOALS: Musselman โ 3; Halligan, Liebowitz, Rozeboom โ 2; Blacker, Grab, Reego, Simmons, Wheaton โ 1
SAVES: Kapana โ 6; Storum โ 2
