March 28, 2008

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. - The No. 3 USC women's water polo team got another balanced attack going on Friday afternoon - boosted by a career-high effort from Veronika Bartunkova. The senior blasted in five goals for the Trojans on the way to a 17-6 win over visiting No. 18 UC Santa Barbara. By the final buzzer, 10 different Women of Troy had scored, marking the fourth time this season the USC offense has swamped its opponent with 10 scorers. Miranda Nichols was next in line with three goals for the Trojans, and starting goalie Tumua Anae notched 10 saves in three periods of play. USC improves to 13-5 overall with the win and moves to 6-1 in MPSF play. UC Santa Barbara is now 4-14, 0-8.

The match opened up tightly as USC held just a 2-1 lead after the first period - tallying its first goal on at Forel Davies strike during an early USC 6-on-5 and then going up 2-0 on a crosscage skipper from Veronika Bartunkova. Bartunkova had served up the assist on Davies first goal, and later nabbed the steal that set USC off on the counterattack she wound up converting croscage. In the second period, USC extended its lead to 4-1 thanks to assists from Alexandra Kiss. She found Alison Riddle on a 6-on-5 score that made it 3-1, and then hit Miranda Nichols for her first goal of the day. UCSB would answer with a 6-on-5 score from Christie Clark - her first of a three-goal outing - only to see the Trojans rattle off three more goals. Bartunkova sandwiched a pair of goals around a 5-on-6 save by Tumua Anae, and the Michelle Stein rifled in a goal on another USC power play to make it 7-2 with two minutes to go in the half. Katie Kepner slipped in a lob for the Gauchos to end the run, but Kiss sailed in a smooth lob after a Trojan counter to lift USC up 8-3 at half.

An early UCSB score from Clark was again followed with a three-goal spurt by the Trojans. Nichols hit Bartunkova for a slick score off the drive to make it 9-4 USC, then Stein rocketed another 6-on-5 strike for a 10-4 lead. Anae again came up big in the cage with a 5-on-6 stuff, and then Nichols fired in a score off the drive herself to make it 11-4 USC. Kepner's second of the day came next for UCSB to bring the score to 11-5 USC with 1:19 on the clock. The Women of Troy would then tack up a six-goal surge, as Nichols completed her hat trick, Bartunkova set a new career high with her fifth goal of the day, and four new Trojan scorers emerged. Kristen Dronberger, Jessica Kutcher and Rebecca McCall each tallied goals, as did Sarah Van Norman with a roaring score out of set as USC leapt to a 17-5 lead.

The Gauchos had an early opportunity to break up the USC scoring run, but backup goalie Whitney Morgan put a stop to it. With 6:24 left in the game, Lizzie Rouleau earned a 5-meter penalty shot for UCSB. Leading scorer Gillian Morgan stepped up to take the shot, squaring off against her older sister, Whitney Morgan, in the cage for USC. Whitney Morgan slapped away the low shot attempt for the save and an intact 13-5 USC lead. Morgan was spelled late in the period by Courtney Ray, who went up against a UCSB 6-on-4 opportunity in the final minute of play. Clark converted the chance for the Gauchos to close down the game as a 17-6 USC victory.

USC now turns to continue its MPSF action with a match at No. 6 San Diego State tomorrow (March 29) at 1 p.m.

#3 USC 17, #18 UC Santa Barbara 6
UCSB 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 = 6
USC 2 - 6 - 5 - 4 = 17

SCORING:
USC - Veronika Bartunkova 5, Miranda Nichols 3, Michelle Stein 2, Forel Davies, Alison Riddle, Alexandra Kiss, Kristen Dronberger, Jessica Kutcher, Sarah Van Norman, Rebecca McCall.
UCSB - Christie Clark 3, Katie Kepner 2, Amanda Tipton.

SAVES: Tumua Anae (USC) 10, Whitney Morgan (USC) 3, Courtney Ray (USC) 0, Jenny Gonzales (UCSB) 5, Kate Murphy (UCSB) 1.