SANTA BARBARA, Calif.— No. 1 seeded UC Irvine (18-6, 7-0 BW) soared past the No. 8 seed Cal State Fullerton (11-20, 0-7 BW), 18-5, in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Big West Women's Water Polo Championships on Friday morning.

The Anteaters set a new Big West record for goals in a tournament with 18. Hawaii previously set the record of 16 in their victory over Long Beach State in 2021's semifinals.

UCI tied the Big West tournament's margin of victory record of 13 which was set by the 'Eaters in their 2018 first round win over CSUN, 14-1.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
>No. 4 ranked UC Irvine out shot Cal State Fullerton, 37-23
>Erin Tharp made the start in the cage, blocking two shots in her ninth win of the season
>Faith Tedesco came into the cage in the second period and Jordan Frost was brought in part way through the third, each blocking one shot each
>14 Anteaters tallied shots in the contest
>Both Nioka Thomas (4-8) and Elena Flynn (4-6) scored four goals in the contest
>Jensine Bugelli went 3-4 at the cage along with her game-high three steals
>Libby Alexander was the final Anteater to have a multi-goal game with her perfect 2-2 shooting
>Mica Schiavone had a match best three assists
>Sabina Shackelford, Jessica Lynch, and Gabby Norris dished out two times each
>Cal State Fullerton was led by Mia Solorzano who recorded three goals on eight shots and one assist
 
FIRST PERIOD
>Kili Skibby drew the exclusion at 7:04 and quickly found Nioka Thomas (7:03) in the middle, 1-0
>Thomas shot the ball, grabbed the deflection off Cal State Fullerton's Haden Skye Bates, and found success again in the center at 5:25 off the pass from Jessica Lynch, 2-0
>After passing the ball around the UCI formation, Libby Alexander found Sabina Shackelford (2:36) on the near side, using the ricochet off the crossbar to get it into the cage, 3-0
>Mica Schiavone threw the distance of the pool where Alexander (0:06) was on the receiving end of the pass and easily put it in the wide-open goal, 4-0
 
SECOND PERIOD
>Jensine Bugelli (5:56) stripped the ball away from a Titan player and went the distance on the counterattack, 5-0
>The Lynch and Thomas connection was alive again at 5:24 when Thomas was able to notch the hat-trick on a back handed shot in the center, 6-0
>Another counterattack, Bugelli scored again on her sprint down the pool, 7-0 (4:55)
>Gracie Helberg added to the Anteater run at 1:47 with her shot, 8-0
>CSUF's Delaney Wilder (1:31) was able to stop the UCI run with her shot that went past the outstretched arms of Faith Tedesco, 8-1

THIRD PERIOD
>Wasting no time off the whistle, Lynch (6:13) shot and scored on the power play opportunity, 9-1
>Thomas put in her fourth goal of the contest at 5:27 with help from Kennedy East, 10-1
>East (4:54) then put one into the cage of her own on the following UCI offensive possession, 11-1
>Elena Flynn (1:09, 0:03) scored two consecutive goals with the second off the dish from Gabby Norris, 13-1

FOURTH PERIOD
>Michaela Strickland (6:49) got on the board for UCI with some help from Mica Schiavone before Flynn (5:23) notched the hat-trick, 15-1
>Cal State Fullerton would score two straight to halt the offensive effort from the Anteaters, 15-3 (4:06, 3:04)
>Maeve Murphy found Flynn for the easy launch on a one-player advantage at 2:42, 16-3
>Bugelli's (1:16) hat-trick was stuck between two tally's from CSUF's Mia Solorzano, 17-5
>Norris passed to M. Schiavone for the final goal of the game with 33 seconds left, 18-5
 
UP NEXT
No. 1 seeded UC Irvine will match up against the No. 4 seed UC San Diego at 11 a.m. for the first semifinal contest of the day.