ANN ARBOR, Mich. --- UC Irvine women's water polo's NCAA Quarterfinal match went down to the wire with a final shot as time expired stopped to drop a defensive battle with No. 4 UCLA, 8-7, Friday at Canham Natatorium.
The Anteaters and Bruins tussled in a match that featured both team's defense. The sides were tied six times along with a few lead changes as UCI held the match's largest lead of 4-2 at the half and never trailed by more than a goal. The sides combined to stop 18 of 24 power play opportunities with UCI thwarting 73% of UCLA's chances on the man-advantage (4-15).
Jessica Lynch led the way scoring three times.
Tara Prentice added two goals to tie the UCI single-season scoring mark with Jessy Cardey (2012) at 74.Â
Brooke Banta added a pair of assists as well as the defensive side featured three steals, four field blocks, and eight saves by
Jordan Frost to tie her career high.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
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Jessica Lynch scored three times for her fifth hat trick of 2022. She also led with two field blocks tying a team high
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Tara Prentice finishes her career with a 30-game scoring streak, ending her career with a UCI and Big West leading 242 goals all-time
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Brooke Banta led the team with two assists against her former team, her second two-assist match of her career
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Elena Flynn and
Piper Smith accounted for the other UCI goals
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Jordan Frost matched her career high with eight saves. In just her seventh match and fourth start, she is now 4-1 with 37 saves and a 7.01 GAA
>UCI's defense shutout UCLA in the second period, the 13th shutout period of the season
UCI HEAD COACH DAN KLATT SAID
"We always come to win so a results where you don't get what you want is disappointing, but that disappointment does not extend to the players, the team and the effort that was incredible today. There were a lot of reasons in that game to bow out of the fight, to make excuses and that never came in to their mind and they battled until that very last possession. We scraped and found ways to put the ball in the net, to keep the ball from going in the net for them and this team became the team we saw a vision for at the beginning of the year, both in character and in performance and that's what we are always trying to do. We want to peak at this time of the season so we are one of the best team's in the country and I feel like we were that. We pushed a storied program in women's water polo to the brink today we just had one less play not go our way. Maybe it will give the give the group fuel that is coming back to go forward when we have that opportunity."
"I am proud of this program, of this team, of my coaching staff and to be representing UCI. I'm just proud of being part of UCI and these women are too and they will carry that with them wherever they go from here."
FIRST PERIOD
>UCLA started the scoring with a goal 21 seconds into the match to lead, 1-0
>The Anteaters leveled things near the midway point of the quarter as
Jessica Lynch took a feed from
Brooke Banta to make it 1-1 with 4:47 left in the first
>The Bruins found an opening with 15 seconds left in the period scoring on the power play to lead 2-1
SECOND PERIOD
>UCI got back even with 6:07 left in the half as an outlet pass found
Kili Skibby on the breakout whose feed to
Piper Smith in the middle made it, 2-2
>The defense rose up in the second period shutting out UCLA as they missed on four shots
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Jordan Frost made five stops in the half as the team shut down UCLA on seven of eight penalty kills
>UCI snagged their first lead of the game with 2:57 left in the second scoring multiple offensive rebounds before
Tara Prentice buried the goal for a 3-2 lead
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Jessica Lynch added her second goal of the game to extend the lead to 4-2 with 1:57 left in the half
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THIRD PERIOD
>The Bruins came storming back scoring twice in the first three minutes to tie things at 4-4
>Lynch took the lead back at 4:18 left in the third with a change-up that dropped in for a 5-4 lead
>The Bruins continued their charge scoring 27 seconds later to make it a 5-5 game, and then taking the lead with 2:35 left in the quarter, 6-5
>The 'Eaters knotted things up as
Elena Flynn scored on a backhand 15 seconds later, 6-6
>UCLA regained the lead in the final minutes, but
Tara Prentice rose up after a foul at mid pool and lofted a shot as the buzzer sounded on the period to score and tie it back at 7-7
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FOURTH PERIOD
>The final period featured just one goal as the defenses again led the way in the 19 fourth-period possessions
>The lone goal went to the Bruins with 5:09 remaining in the match which didn't start out as a goal with
Jordan Frost making the stop, but the ball spun on the water inside the far post to make it an 8-7 UCLA lead
>Frost stepped up with two huge saves in the following possessions to give UCI a chance
>UCI had one last chance to tie earning possession with 33 seconds remaining and
Tara Prentice assuming the goalie position in the offensive half.
Isabel Rack's final shot was corralled by UCLA keeper, Georgia Philips, as time expired.
NOTES
>Head Coach
Dan Klatt returned to the sidelines in his and the program's seven trip to the NCAA Tournament with an overall record of 7-9
>UCI averaged 11.9 goals per game in 2022, a program record
>Friday was the fourth one-goal loss to UCLA and second in a NCAA Tournament match
>UCI finishes with a record of 22-7, its 17th straight winning season and eighth season in which they've won 20 or more
