No. 6 Anteaters Head to No. 4 Cal, CSUEB on Saturday

Saturday, April 2

Berkeley, Calif.

12:30 PM

UC Irvine

Cal

jensine-bugelli-uci-wwp-2022-concordia-cal-csueb

Photo by: Robert Huskey

No. 6 Anteaters Head to No. 4 Cal, CSUEB on Saturday

March 31, 2022 | Women's Water Polo

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau


Dates	April 2, 2022
Location	Spieker Aquatics Complex - Berkeley, Calif.	Pioneer Pool - Hayward, Calif.
Times	Saturday - 12:30 PM No. 4 Cal Golden Bears Pac-12.com Live Stats	Saturday - 5:00 PM *Cal State East Bay Pioneers* 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 entering March. The Anteaters upset No. 6 Michigan at the Kalbus Invite and went 3-1 to finish fifth, but dropped a match at No. 2 UCLA for its first road loss. The Anteaters won their most recent match defeating No. 20 San Diego State at home, 14-10, behind hat tricks from Elena Flynn and Tara Prentice.
· The Anteaters are 3-0 in Big West Play winning last week at No. 10 Long Beach State, 11-7. It was the third win of the season over the Beach, 22nd straight win in the series, and has not lost at LBSU since 2004. UCI also has beaten No. 16 UCSB by eight goals and at No. 24 CSUN by 14 goals. Big West preseason polls selected the 'Eaters to finish first.
· Tara Prentice leads the team with 46 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 214 in her career. Next on the list is Robyn Kaake three ahead of Prentice, and she's just 10 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 19 and exclusions drawn with 55 of the team's 120 recorded exclusions drawn this season.
· Sarah Nichols is UCI's assist leader with 19. She also posted UCI's only two 2-field block matches of 2022 in the wins over Long Beach State and San Diego State, and leads all 'Eaters with seven this season.
· Keeper Faith Tedesco has made all 19 starts with a 14-5 record. She has 126 saves with a high of 15 in a match this season against Fresno State. Tedesco has posted an 9.03 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 12 of 17 sprints and has won 67% of her sprints, 67 wins in total over her career
· Some 'Eaters surpassed milestones with Tara Prentice playing her 100th match on vs. SDSU. Jessica Lynch reached 100 career points with her four at UCLA now with 103 in her career behind 70 goals and 33 assists. Chloe Spievak played her first career match at Long Beach State recording a steal.
· 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.

ANTEATER ACCOLADES
· Anteaters have won Big West Player of the Week five times between two players. Tara Prentice has won four this year, three straight at one point, and seven for her career all setting Big West records. Nioka Thomas drew the fifth Anteater award and the first of her career back on February 9 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 her career so far.

SATURDAY AT CAL & CAL STATE EAST BAY
· The final non-conference matchups and road matches come this weekend playing a Saturday doubleheader in Northern California in the morning against No. 4 Cal live streamed, and later that afternoon at Cal State East Bay.
· Cal enters the weekend at 15-2, No. 4 in the nation with close losses to USC and UCLA. The Golden Bears defeated UCI, 16-8, in the opening-weekend tournament at ASU, but were unable to make the trip to the Kalbus Invite due to COVID issues. UCI is searching for its fourth-ever win in its 24th meeting having won twice in the last four matches. Emma Wright set the tone in the first meeting with five goals and two assists. She's scored 35 this year among five Cal players with 20+ goals.
· The Cal State East Bay Pioneers have flirted with the top 25 rankings all year as they enter the week at 9-12. Common foes they've faced are Marist, losing twice, and to Arizona State and LMU. This will be just the third home match for the Pioneers as it finishes the regular season with five straight home matches, two coming against WWPA opponents of which they're 3-0 so far. Top players include junior leading scorer Adrien Van Dyke, senior Auriel Bill, with as many goals as assists, and another 20-goal scorer at center in freshman Bailey Barlow. The 'Eaters 3-0 all-time vs. CSUEB including 20+ goals in two of the games