'Eaters Open Home Matches with Azusa Pacific, Concordia

Saturday, February 5

Irvine, Calif.

12:00 PM

UC Irvine

Azusa Pacific

faith-tedesco-uci-wwp-2022-asu-apu-cui-fresno-state

Photo by: Glenn Feingerts

'Eaters Open Home Matches with Azusa Pacific, Concordia

February 03, 2022 | Women's Water Polo

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau


Dates	February 5, 2022
Location	Irvine, Calif. - Anteater Aquztics Complex
Times	Saturday - 12:00 PM Azusa Pacific Cougars UC Irvine Live Stream Live Stats	Saturday - 3:00 PM Concordia Eagles UC Irvine Live Stream Live Stats
Opponent
Live Stream
Live Stats
Match Notes	UC Irvine Women's Water Polo Notes
Social Media	@UCIwwp @UCIwwp UC Irvine Women's Water Polo #RipEm #TogetherWeZot

STORYLINES
· The 'Eaters are back after a week out of the pool. UCI began the season in Tempe for the ASU Cross Conference Challenge taking on four other top-10 teams going 2-2. It featured an upset of fourth-ranked hosts of the tournament, Arizona State, behind Tara Prentice's sixth career five-goal match.
· UCI remains ranked seventh in the nation. Big West preseason polls selected the 'Eaters to finish first.
· Prentice finished the weekend with 10 goals to lead the team and earned her fourth Big West Player of the Week honor. She's up to 178 career goals, five from tying McKenna Mitchell for seventh in program history.
· Faith Tedesco assumed the starting goalie role in all four matches picking up 34 saves. The win over Fresno State she saved 15 shots, the most in a UCI game since 2018 and tied for the sixth-most in a matchup.
· Jessica Lynch picked up the scoring with seven on the weekend for second on the squad including setting a career high four goals to lead the team against Fresno State.
· Other high scorers in the opening tournament featured Elena Flynn with five goals, freshmen Kennedy East and Nioka Thomas each posted their first three goals, and Piper Smith scored three times and won four of her five sprints. Assist leaders on the weekend were Kili Skibby and Toni Shackelford with four each.
· UCI's defense posted a pair of shutout periods in the first weekend both coming against Fresno State.

ANTEATER ACCOLADES
· The Dean's List was announced last week with 113 student–athletes recognized with grade point averages at 3.50 and above. From women's water polo, 12 were honored including Brooke Banta, Ariana Bockstahler, Jensine Bugelli, Kennedy East, Airian Grisham, Kira Hoffman, Maeve Murphy, Sarah Nichols, Gabby Norris, Mica Schiavone, Piper Smith, and Rylee Williams.
· The Anteaters were also honored academically with 23 on the ACWPC All-Academic Team and 13 on the Big West Spring All-Academic Team following the 2020-21 schoolyear.
· In the pool, three were named ACWPC All-Americans including graduates Morgan Jones and Megan Falcon, and a lone returner in Piper Smith on the Second Team who led the squad in scoring with 26 goals.
· Six Anteaters earned All-Big West honors with Smith and Jones on the First Team. Falcon made Second Team with returner Sarah Nichols. Two more returners were honored as Jessica Lynch was Honorable Mention, and All-Freshman Team was occupied by Kili Skibby.
· UCI brought home its share of player of the week awards in 2021 as well with Piper Smith, Morgan Jones, Dani Ayala, and Jensine Bugelli accounting for the five weekly awards.
· Three-time All-American Tara Prentice returns after sitting out the 2021 season to train of the 2021 Olympics. Prentice enters the season with 168 career goals.

SATURDAY VS. AZUSA PACIFIC, CONCORDIA
· Azusa Pacific begins the weekend with a 12:00 p.m. first sprint. They only had eight matches a year ago, but were 4-4 with wins over LMU and Santa Clara. They split the opening weekend in UCSB to earn them votes in the rankings. Milena Guzman Ortiz tops the squad with 12 goals and 10 drawn exclusions. Kyra Kahahawai adds 10 goals and three steals along with her. All-time, the programs have met twice with UCI winning 15-10 in 2016 and 16-6 in 2019, both on a neutral site.
· Concordia finishes the day with a 3:00 p.m. first sprint. They got started in 2022 last weekend in Riverside with a loss to UC Santa Barbara and one-goal loss to CSUN. This is just the second meeting between programs, the other coming to open 2011 with UCI winning, 21-3. Kim Reidel returns after 22 goals last year while Madison Ravelo scored five goals vs. UCSB last weekend. Concordia also features Tamsyn Evezard, sister of men's water polo alum, Jason.