FRESNO, Calif. – UC Irvine women's water polo narrowly fell to No. 4 Cal, 8-6, Saturday evening at Poolapalooza.

The Anteaters (0-2) dropped two 2-goal results to top-4 programs on their opening day including a one-goal deficit vs. Cal heading into the fourth quarter

Libby Alexander and Sara Naulty each had two-goal games with Airian Grisham and Annabelle Mundelius adding tallies with Grisham notching an assist. Faith Tedesco stopped six shots in net and added three steals. Kili Skibby led all players with three exclusions drawn and added a steal.

FIRST PERIOD
>The sides were scoreless after the game's first seven possessions until Cal jumped on the board with a 5:08 penalty shot
>Annabelle Mundelius evened things up at 4:35, 1-1
>Another penalty shot went in for Cal at 1:28 to go back up, 2-1
>The Anteaters got a penalty of their own at 0:21, but missed, and Cal countered with a goal to lead, 3-1

SECOND PERIOD
>Airian Grisham scored at 5:41 on the powerplay to make it a 3-2 game
>Cal responded on their power play to make it a two-goal game once again, 4-2, with 5:17 in the half
>Defenses held until Sara Naulty broke through with four seconds to go in the half to make it 4-3

THIRD PERIOD
>Cal's Claire Rowell scored twice in the first two minutes of the half to spread the Golden Bear lead to 6-3
>The defense took over denying Cal for the rest of the period
>Libby Alexander drew the match to 6-4 with 3:57 left in the third
>Naulty netted another goal with 1:39 left in the period to make it a 6-5 game

FOURTH PERIOD
>The fourth quarter began in a stalemate before Cal punched home a goal with 5:09 left in the game to lead, 7-5
>Cal sealed things with a goal with 3:15 remaining to go up 8-5
>The 'Eaters ended their drought with 0:44 to go in the match on a goal by Libby Alexander, but it was too little too late falling 8-6

NOTES
>UCI gets going bright and early Sunday with the first of two matches at 9:30 a.m. vs. No. 18 San Jose State and finishing against No. 11 UC Davis at 12:30 p.m.