No. 6 UC Irvine Heads to No. 2 UCLA

Friday, March 11

Los Angeles, Calif.

1:00 PM

UC Irvine

UCLA

No. 6 UC Irvine Heads to No. 2 UCLA

March 10, 2022 | Women's Water Polo

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

					This Week in UC Irvine Women's Water Polo
Dates				March 11, 2022
Location				Spieker Aquatics Center - Los Angeles, Calif.
Times				Friday - 1:00 PM #2 UCLA Bruins 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
· UCI remain sixth in the nation after being ranked seventh all season until last week. The Anteaters upset No. 6 Michigan at the Kalbus Invite and went 3-1 to finish fifth, and followed up with a 16-8 win last week at UC Santa Barbara.
· The Anteaters are now 2-0 in Big West Play winning at No. 16 UCSB by eight goals and at No. 24 CSUN by 14 goals. Big West preseason polls selected the 'Eaters to finish first. Conference play returns March 25 at Long Beach State.
· Tara Prentice leads the team with 41 goals. She became the sixth Anteater with 200 career goals during the Kalbus Invite and surpassed Erica Horman and Mary Brooks all-time for third place with 209 in her career. Next on the list is Robyn Kaake eight ahead of Prentice, and she's just 15 away from the program all-time scoring leader, Jessy Cardey. Her six-goal game at LMU was her career high at UCI, and she added five goals at UC Santa Barbara for six career games with at least five goals. Prentice also leads the squad in steals with 17 and exclusions drawn with 46 of the team's 105 recorded exclusions drawn this season.
· Sarah Nichols is UCI's assist leader with 16. She also posted UCI's first game of 2022 with two field blocks recorded in the win over Long Beach State, and leads all 'Eaters with five this season.
· Keeper Faith Tedesco has made all 17 starts with a 13-4 record. She has 113 saves with a high of 15 in a match this season against Fresno State. Tedesco has posted an 8.09 goals-against-average this season and for her career.
· Piper Smith netted her 100th career goal vs. Azusa Pacific. Smith is the 17th Anteater with 100 career goals. She's also the leading sprinter winning 11 of 15 sprints and has won 67% of her sprints, 66 wins in total.
· Upcoming milestones for 'Eaters are Tara Prentice two games away from 100 in her career. Jessica Lynch stands two points away from 100 in her career with 66 goals and 32 assists.
· The Anteaters finished fifth at the UCSD Triton Invite and Kalbus Invite at UCI winning three of four matches at each. UCI also won two of four matches to open the season at the ASU Cross Conference Challenge in Tempe.
· Schedule changes were announced for games at Cal, now April 2 at 12:30 p.m., and the April 2 match at Cal State East Bay has now been shifted to a 5:00 p.m. start.

ANTEATER ACCOLADES
· Anteaters have won Big West Player of the Week five times between two players. Tara Prentice won her fourth of the year, third straight, and seventh in her career this week all setting Big West records. Nioka Thomas drew the fifth Anteater award and the first of her career giving UCI five of the seven Big West awards in 2022.
· Big West Commissioner's Honor Roll was announced for student-athletes over 3.00 GPA in 2021 with 18 women's water polo players. Jensine Bugelli, Kira Hoffman, Tara Prentice, Kili Skibby, and Rylee Williams were recognized highest honors and Brooke Banta, Ariana Bockstahler, Elena Flynn, Jordan Frost, Jessica Lynch, Maeve Murphy, Jessica Newell, Sarah Nichols, Isabel Rack, Portia Schiavone, Mica Schiavone, Piper Smith, and Faith Tedesco with honors. This builds off the 12 players among the 113 Anteaters on fall Dean's List.
· 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.
· Three-time All-American Tara Prentice returns after sitting out the 2021 season to train of the 2021 Olympics. Prentice entered the season with 168 career goals and passed 200 for his career.

FRIDAY AT UCLA
· The Anteaters travel to No. 2 UCLA for a match Friday at 1:00 p.m. The 'Eaters are winless in 28 career matches with the Bruins. The sides last met in 2020 losing, 13-9, at UCI. Prior, the 'Eaters posted a three-goal defeat at UCLA in 2019, and took them to overtime at home in 2018 losing by a single goal.
· The Bruins come in ranked No. 2 nationally. UCLA is 20-1 going 5-0 at the UCSB Invite, 4-0 at the Michigan Invite and Triton Invite, and posting their only loss at the Kalbus Invite dropping the championship match to then-No. 4 Stanford, 12-9. Following the match with UCI, UCLA has three matches remaining, all Pac-12 contests with Stanford, Arizona State, and USC. To this point, UCLA has just two matches in their own pool winning 19-6 over No. 11 San Jose State and a 12-8 win over No. 8 Fresno State.
· The offense for the Bruins runs through Olympian Maddie Musselman with 47 goals, 23 assists, and has won 23 of 24 sprints while making 60% of her shots. She has also pilfered a team-high 30 steals and eight field blocks. Other notable players are Emma Lineback (31 G, 22 A, 14 STL), Val Ayala (22 G, 17 A, 13 STL), and Ava Johnson (20 G, 49 exclusions drawn). Keeper Georgia Phillips has made 18 of 19 starts recording a 6.35 goals-against-average and 187 saves in net.