UCLA
USC
No. 4 UCLA Falls to No. 1 USC, 11-5
April 21, 2018 | Women's Water Polo
LOS ANGELES โ The No. 4 UCLA women's water polo team fell to No. 1 USC Saturday at Uytengsu Aquatics Center, 11-5, concluding the regular season for each team. The MPSF Championships will begin at California's Spieker Aquatics Complex April 27.
Alexis Angermund, Devin Grab, Maddie Musselman, Grace Reego and Lizette Rozeboom each scored a goal for the Bruins, whose record dropped to 21-5 (2-3 in MPSF play). USC improved to 21-1 (5-0).
Defense was the name of the game for the first 3:51 of play, as goalkeepers Carlee Kapana and Amanda Longan stonewalled their counterparts. USC was finally able to turn defense into offense at 4:09 of the opening frame, though, as Maud Megens scored on the counterattack to break the scoreless tie. The Trojans would take a 2-0 lead into the game's first break, with Hayley McKelvey accounting for the follow-up effort.
McKelvey lofted one over the head of a drawn-out Kapana to make it 3-0 with 6:21 to go in the second quarter. Devin Grab quickly answered, though, netting the Bruins first goal of the game with a rocket shot past the Trojan defense. A scoring spree continued 26 seconds later when Megens converted on a penalty shot that she skipped in for a 4-1 lead. McKelvey capped second-quarter scoring with her third goal of the evening at 3:24.
Lizette Rozeboom got scoring started in the third, cashing in a power play opportunity at 5:53 to make it a 5-2 game. Two weeks after making up a four-goal deficit before falling against top-ranked Stanford, Alexis Angermund scored the second straight Bruin goal to trim their deficit to 5-3. The Trojans nipped the Bruin rally in the bud, though, scoring four straight to essentially put the game away. McKelvey scored twice during the run, upping her game-high goal total to five.
Maddie Musselman scored her 46th goal of the season on a six-on-five opportunity to open the final frame (5:02), but Denise Mammolito (2:46) and Paige Hauschild (0:47) would break the Trojans into double figures and extend the lead to a game-high seven at 11-4. Bruin Grace Reego's goal with 26 seconds remaining would finalize scoring.
No. 1 USC 11, No. 4 UCLA 5
No. 4 UCLA (0, 1, 2, 2 โ 5)
GOALS: Angermund, Grab, Musselman, Reego, Rozeboom โ 1
No. 1 USC (2, 3, 4, 2 โ 11)
GOALS: McKelvey โ 5; Mammolito, Megens โ 2; Hauschild, McIntosh โ 1
