Fourth Period Rally Not Enough In Loss To No. 3 UCLA

Saturday, February 11

Irvine, CA

12 p.m.

UC Irvine

6-5

UCLA

10-1

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
UCLA	1	5	4	2	12
UC Irvine	2	0	2	5	9

Fourth Period Rally Not Enough In Loss To No. 3 UCLA

February 11, 2023 | Women's Water Polo

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Jordan Kehoe

IRVINE, Calif. – Fourth period rally not enough as No. 6 UC Irvine (6-5) fell to No. 3 UCLA (10-1), 12-9 in Saturday's matinee.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>No. 6 UC Irvine outshot No. 3 UCLA, 36-35
>Erin Tharp made the start in the cage, making four stops
>Faith Tedesco entered in at goal for the second half to block eight shots
>Elena Flynn led the team in goals, nothing the hat-trick (3-12)
>Kennedy East and Gracie Helberg each scored two goals apiece
>Jessica Lynch tied the game high two assists
>Lynch and Tharp tied for the game best two steals
>No. 3 UCLA was led by Katrina Drake and A. Pearson, both recording two goals in the contest

FIRST PERIOD
>Jessica Lynch was able to stripe the ball away from a UCLA player to set up Elena Flynn at 5:29, 1-0
>After a UCLA Katrina Drake shot that hit of the post, she collected the ricochet to allowed her to knot the game 1-1 at 2:45
>On the following UCI possession, UCI took the 2-1 lead after Kennedy East was able to find Libby Alexander in front of the cage at 2:21 for the shot

SECOND PERIOD
>The Bruins added two goals to their column in less than a minute (7:20, 6:34) with the second one scored on the one-man advantage, 2-3
>East shot a ball that clanged off the bar, but No. 3 UCLA was able to corral the bounce back to drive for another goal, 2-4
>After an exchange of shots, UCLA converted again at 2:17, 2-5
>UCLA dented the twine with three seconds left on the clock to stretch their lead into the break, 2-6

THIRD PERIOD
>No. 3 UCLA scored two more goals over a 1:18 span (7:38, 6:20), 2-8
>Sabina Shackelford dished to an open Gracie Helberg to extinguish the Anteaters scoring drought at 5:52, 3-8
>Flynn's ball into the cage at 2:05 was sandwiched between two Bruin goals, 4-10

FOURTH PERIOD
>The Bruins were able to capitalize on the power play opportunity at 6:43, 4-11
>UCI went on a 3-0 run from 3:05-1:19, with goals coming from Helberg (3:05), Flynn (2:06), and East (1:19), 7-11
>Lynch (0:58) answered UCLA's goal at 1:09 with one of her own, 8-12
>East closed out the game at 0:16 with her launch from halfway into the open cage, 9-12

UP NEXT
The Anteaters conclude their doubleheader day at 4 p.m. with a contest against Whittier.