UPCOMING MATCHES
No. 5 UC Irvine Anteaters at No. 2 UCLA Bruins
Friday, Feb. 13, 2015 / 3:00 PM
Los Angeles, Calif.
TV: Pac-12 Network
OPENING SPRINTS
The 'Eaters made a strong push up the rankings following their second place performance at the UCSD Triton Invite over the weekend jumping up to No. 5, tied for the program's highest ranking.
UC Irvine played its first and only unranked squad to appear on its schedule to this point in Santa Clara. After being tied through one period, UCI put up a six-goal second followed by a scoreless defensive effort to begin the second half that lasted through half of the fourth period.
Saturday finished out with a hard-fought win over UC San Diego. The 'Eaters built a four-goal lead before the Triton pulled back even late in the third period. Mary Brooks' fourth goal of the game helped the 'Eaters regain the lead for good to win, 10-7.
The crowning achievement of the weekend was a stellar, 10-9, victory over No. 5 Arizona State in overtime. A back-and-forth match fed into overtime after McKenna Mitchell dropped in a pair of goals in the fourth period. The Sun Devils claimed the lead after the first overtime period, but a relentless comeback with three goals in the second overtime period paved the way for the UCI upset. The Anteaters claimed a similar result in their first matchup with ASU in 2015, winning by three, before falling by one in overtime in the 2014 UCI Invitational and ultimately falling again by one goal in the NCAA Tournament fifth-place match.
UCI outscored its opponents 40-32 in the four matches now scoring at an average of 8.63 goals per match.
McKenna Mitchell led the team with 10 goals over the weekend assuming the team's lead with 14. She scored in every match of the invite and took home Big West Athlete of the Week honors for it following keeper Jillian Yocum who won the accolade last week. Mitchell also cracked the 100-goal plateau standing officially at 102 for her career.
Other weekend scorers were Mary Brooks and Danielle Warde, posting seven each, to stand at 12 and 11 goals on the season, respectively. Cambria Shockley scored five times in three matches while Kelsey Thornton also found the back of the net in three different matches.
Two more 'Eaters notched their first collegiate goals over the weekend with Julie Swieca scoring twice and Corinna Toledo adding one in the 15-6 win over Santa Clara.
Danielle Warde put up five goals against the Broncos. It was the program's 28th five-goal effort by an individual and sixth for Warde, the most by a single player in Anteater history.
COUNTER ATTACK
A lot of records and figures were brought to the forefront in the opening weekend.
The program recorded win No. 250 on Sunday, Feb. 1 with the win over UC Davis. All-time, the program is now 253-213 in 466 career matches.
The program as a whole began the season with 3,720 goals scored which has since risen to 3,789. The 'Eaters stood 280 goals away from the 4,000-goal mark entering the season, a mark the program has reached five times and three times in the last four years.
SPLASHING ABOUT
UC Irvine embarks on a travel-filled 2015 schedule beginning, and possibly ending, in Palo Alto, Calif. This year marks the first season to open at the Stanford Invitational. Other destinations including UC San Diego for the Triton Invite, Bloomington, Indiana for the Fluid Four, and Hawai'i for the Big West Tournament.
UC Irvine has a total of seven home matches of its 28 scheduled this season. Outside the invite, UCI will host USC, Hawai'i, and UC Davis.
Based on the preseason poll, 18 of the 20 ranked squads show up on the schedule missing just Princeton and Harvard.
The Anteaters also have zero unranked schools on their slate as of yet. The 'Eaters' opening opponent of the UCSD Triton Invite, Santa Clara, was the lowest, receiving votes in the CWPA poll.
HOLLYWOOD TREATMENT
The Anteaters have the distinct honor of opening the broadcast schedule for the 2015 water polo season with a Friday afternoon contest on the Pac-12 Network on the campus of No. 2 UCLA. The Anteaters have made one other television appearance on the network which came last season at USC.
UCLA finished as the runner-up in 2014 going 27-5 and falling to Stanford in the championship match. The 2015 Bruins are 9-1 to this point with the one loss coming in the form of another four-goal loss to Stanford. The upside has been nine wins by an average of 11.5 goals while scoring an average of 15.7 goals in those matches.
The Bruins and 'Eaters have been going at it recently with UCI playing UCLA tough as of late. UCLA has won each of the last seven matches, but by a total of 15 goals including three one-goal matches with one of them coming in the third place match of the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
The leading goalscorer is senior Emily Donohoe with 20, and she is joined near the top by juniors Alys Williams and Rachel Fattal as well as freshman Devin Grab who has put up 17 of her own as part of seven Bruins to score 10 or more goals this season.
In net, Sami Hill has started nine of the ten matches posting a goals-against-average of 5.03 and stopping 69 shots with a game-high of 13 in a five-goal win against Cal. Alex Musselman has also appeared in four matches allowing eight goals while stopping 12.
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