UCLA
CSU Bakersfield
Bruins Race Past Roadrunners, 17-5
March 11, 2017 | Women's Water Polo
LOS ANGELES -- The No. 3 UCLA women's water polo team opened its MPSF home schedule with a 17-5 win over No. 23 CSU Bakersfield, 17-5, at Spieker Aquatics Center. Ten Bruins scored goals in the win, led by Maddie Musselman's four. Rachel Fattal scored three, including the 200th of her career.
After the Roadrunners' Cassandra Ream was whistled for an exclusion at 6:48 of the first frame, the Bruins' Kodi Hill capitalized on the six-on-five opportunity to net the first goal of the contest. Fattal and Musselman followed one apiece before the quarter reached its midway point. Fattal added another shortly thereafter to make the score 4-0. The Roadrunners' Ashley Paz scored the visitors' first of the game to cut their deficit to 4-1, but the Bruins' Devin Grab quickly answered with under a minute to go to give UCLA (13-1, 2-0) a 5-1 lead after one.
Musselman scored her second goal of the contest to open scoring in the second. Fattal followed with a six-on-five goal to finish her hat trick and give the attacked 200 goals for her career. She became the fourth Bruin all-time to reach the mark. The Bruins went on to score a goal a minute, as Musselman, Mackenzie Barr, Alexa Tielmann, Lizette Rozeboom and Tielmann, again, rattled off goals to give UCLA a 12-1 halftime lead.
Once again, Musselman opened a quarter with a score, as she completed her four-goal effort 25 seconds into the second half. Alys Williams followed with her 27th of the season, and Devin Grab added her second of day to put the Bruin lead at a game-high 14 goals for the first time of the day. CSUB (9-10, 0-3) cut into the lead with a goal by Jada Helberg at 1:00 of the third, but Aubrie Monahan answered to send the Bruins to the fourth with a 16-2 lead.
Hannah Storum entered the game in goal as the Bruins went to the fourth, as Carlee Kapana departed with six saves. Storum tallied three of her own and relinquished three Roadrunner scores, but the UCLA lead was too great. Nicole Reynolds added one more goal for good measure, as the Bruins secured the 17-5 victory.
UCLA will return to the pool on Saturday, March 18, when they host the No. 4 California Golden Bears in another MPSF showdown. The Bruins previously defeated Cal in the third-place game of the Barbara Kalbus Invitational, 12-11 (Feb. 26). The meeting at Spieker Aquatics Center will begin at 11:30 a.m. and be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
No. 3 UCLA (5, 7, 4, 1 โ 17)
Musselman โ 4; Fattal โ 3; Grab, Tielmann โ 2; Barr, Hill, Monahan, Reynolds, Rozeboom, Williams โ 1
No. 23 CSU Bakersfield (1, 0, 1, 3 โ 5)
Paz โ 2; Helberg, Jensen, Ream โ 1
