University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Five Bruins Earn MPSF Honors
April 25, 2019 | Women's Water Polo
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WOODLAND, Calif. – On the eve of the MPSF Championships in Stanford, Calif., five members of the No. 3 UCLA women's water polo team received recognition from the conference office on Thursday.
For the third time in as many years, junior attacker Maddie Musselman was named a member of the All-MPSF First Team. Earning Second Team All-MPSF accolades was junior attacker Bronte Halligan while senior goalkeeper Carlee Kapana earned honorable mention plaudits. Attacker Val Ayala and center Ava Johnson rounded out the list of honorees as MPSF All-Newcomer Team selections.
Musselman leads the team in scoring with 50 goals in 21 games which ranks fourth in the MPSF (2.38 goals per game). The Newport Beach, Calif. native has scored at least one goal in each of her last 17 games and has 16 multi-goal games on the year. She has scored a season-high and career-high-tying five goals three times this season (six for her career), including in wins over Hawai'i, UC Davis and Fresno State.
Halligan is third on the squad in scoring with 27 goals in 24 games for an average of 1.13 goals per game. The Sydney, Australia native has scored at least one goal in each of her last seven contests and has six multi-goal games on the year. She scored a season-high and career-high-tying four goals in a win at San Jose State..
A constant on the conference's leaderboard, Kapana collected her third All-MPSF honor. The senior holds a goals-against average of 6.64, good for fourth in the league. She's also swatted away shots at a rate of 9.96 per game to place second. The Newport Beach, Calif. native registered a season-high 13 saves in her last outing, a 9-8 loss to No. 2 USC.
Ayala is second on the team in scoring with 32 goals in 26 games which ranks 24th in the league (1.23 goals per game). The Anaheim native has scored at least on goal in each of her last three games and has eight multi-goal games on the year. She scored a season-high three goals five times, including in a win over UC Irvine twice, Fresno State, Michigan, and CSUN.
Johnson is fifth on the team in scoring with 19 goals in 21 games for an average of 0.9 goals per game. The Walnut Creek native has scored at least one goal in each of her last four games and has four multi-goal games on the year. She scored a season-high four goals in a win over Santa Clara.
The third-seeded Bruins will take on sixth-seeded Arizona State on Friday at 12:45 p.m. PT in an MPSF Championships quarterfinal contest at Stanford's Avery Aquatics Center. All games are set to be streamed live at https://mpsports.org/watch/?Live=27.
