April 25, 2008

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - The No. 3 seeded USC women's water polo team punched its ticket to the MPSF Semifinals with a 12-6 win over sixth-seeded Arizona State on Friday afternoon at San Diego State's Aztec Aquaplex. The Women of Troy eased out of a second-period lockup with a five-goal scoring run that helped push the Trojans to victory. Forel Davies and Veronika Bartunkova each knocked in a hat trick to lead USC, which improves its overall record to 18-6 with today's win. USC will face second-seeded Stanford in the semifinals, squaring off against the Cardinal at 4:10 p.m. on Saturday (April 26) in San Diego.

USC opened the match with a three-goal run, getting scores from Jordan Anae and Veronika Bartunkova on 6-on-5 strikes and a crosscage bullet from Forel Davies on the counterattack. ASU answered back with a three-goal run, however, evening things at 3-3 by the 5:45 mark of the second period. The Trojans regrouped from there, and rallied with a five-goal surge to take back the lead and pad it comfortably. Miranda Nichols made a nice move on the right side and found Bartunkova to a score at two meters to spark the run, pushing USC up 4-3 at 3:22. After USC snuffed a Sun Devil 6-on-5, Davies finished off another Trojan counterattack with a shot to side net in the final minute of the first half.

Top open the second half, Alexandra Kiss put away a smooth shot from the top for a 6-3 USC lead. Forty second later, Nichols earned a 5-meter penalty shot for the Trojans, and Kally Lucas rocketed in the shot to make it 7-3. USC's fifth straight score came from Stein, who took a pass from Sarah Van Norman and blasted in the strike to get USC ahead 8-3 at 4:49 in the third period. ASU would end the run with back-to-back scores from Addison McGrath, only to have another Davies attack - this one a sidearm bullet for another crosscage score - lift USC up 9-5 to bring up the fourth period.

A Tumua Anae save fed into the USC counterattack in the fourth, and Lucas lofted in the score to make it 10-5 USC. ASU would finish of a 6-on-5 next to make it 10-6, but the Trojans answered with two more goals before the final buzzer. Stein tallied her second goal of the game with a 6-on-5 score, and then Bartunkova's third of the day came after her own steal to round out the game as a 12-6 USC victory.

MPSF Tournament -- Quarterfinals
Friday, April 25
USC 12, Arizona State 6
ASU 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 = 6
USC 3 - 2 - 4 - 3 = 12

SCORING:
USC - Forel Davies 3, Veronika Bartunkova 3, Kally Lucas 2, Michelle Stein 2, Jordan Anae, Alexandra Kiss.
ASU - Addison McGrath 3, Bonnie Miles, Kelly Phelps, Amanda Stepp.

SAVES: Tumua Anae (USC) 8, Whitney Morgan (USC) 1, Caylinn Wallace (ASU) 8.