HONOLULU, Hawai'i --- UC Irvine women's water polo fought through a tense opening-round match at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex Thursday afternoon, but prevailed over 7-seen CSUN, 13-9.

UC Irvine jumped out to a large first-period lead behind two of Elena Flynn's four goals only to see the lead shrink to one by halftime and tied early in the third period. Flynn rebroke the tie and got three third-period goals from Jessica Lynch to finally separate the Anteaters from the CSUN Matadors for good.

The Anteaters improve to 20-6 overall and advance on to the Big West Semifinals they will play Friday, April 22, at 4:00 p.m. against the winner of the match following theirs between Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>Elena Flynn and Jessica Lynch each scored four times to lead all scorers on the match
>Lynch added two assists to lead all players with six points
>Tara Prentice scored twice giving her 70 for the season making her the first Anteater to register multiple seasons with 70 or more goals
>Piper Smith led all players with two steals
>Faith Tedesco made one save on the afternoon and added a steal

FIRST PERIOD
>The scoring opened 1:29 into the first period with Elena Flynn 
>The 'Eaters grew their lead to 4-0 with 2:28 left in the quarter with goals by Jessica Lynch on the power play at 4:38, Tara Prentice with a 3:57 penalty goal, and Isabel Rack completing the run
>The Matadors scored once to close out the period with 2:03 left leaving UCI ahead, 4-1

SECOND PERIOD
>The teams traded goals to open the period with Anna Pal netting a goal for CSUN at 6:55, but Flynn countered with her second goal at 5:43
>The Matadors cut the deficit to one goal with goals at 3:44 and 2:22 left in the period
>Ariana Bockstahler lobbed a shot in with 1:33 left in the half to put the lead back to 6-4, UCI
>The halftime buzzer rang as CSUN's Dorottya Telek drained a goal to make it a 6-5 game at the break

THIRD PERIOD
>The game was tied up 29 seconds into the second half at 6-6 on a CSUN goal
>The Anteaters pulled away with five straight goals to end the third period starting with Flynn's third goal at 6:47
>Jessica Lynch scored the next three goals at 6:07, 4:39, and 1:34 in the period
>Kili Skibby ended the five-goal run with 29 seconds left in the third

FOURTH PERIOD
>The Matadors closed things again to a three-goal game with tallies at 6:54 and 5:33 left in the match
>UC Irvine took the lead back to five goals with Tara Prentice's second at 4:34 and Flynn netting her fourth with 3:47 remaining

NOTES
>UC Irvine won its 20th match of the season; first time since 2017 and eighth time in program history
>The 'Eaters won three of four sprints including two for Piper Smith now with 81 wins in her career
>UCI's 13 goals keeps up their season average of 12.1 goals per game, the highest season average in program history
 
POSTMATCH PRESS CONFERENCE


UP NEXT
UC Irvine plays at 4:00 p.m. PDT tomorrow, April 22, in the Big West Semifinal against the winner of Long Beach State vs. UC Santa Barbara