TEMPE – Petra Pardi continued her impressive offensive streak but the No. 6 Arizona State University water polo team could only manage a split in Sunday’s final day of the 2015 ASU Water Polo Invitational in Tempe, Ariz.
The Devils got things going with an impressive 12-5 victory over No. 16 Indiana before the offense struggled to get anything going in a 5-3 loss to No. 14 Long Beach State.
Pardi finished the day with a team high five goals spread over the two games and has now scored 13 goals in her last four games while E.B. Keeve made 25 stops over the course of the two games.
The split dropped ASU to 15-5 overall with a 2-1 record in MPSF conference play. The Devils will host another big MPSF contest next weekend against No. 2 Stanford in Tempe on Saturday, May 28 at Noon PT before taking on Hartwick later that day.
Recaps from Sunday’s action can be found below.
ASU 12, No. 16 Indiana 5
Izabella Chiappini and Petra Pardi each scored three goals while ASU limited the Hoosiers to just a single goal in each of the first three periods to come away with a 12-5 victory over No. 16 Indiana in the opening game of the day on Sunday.
Petra Pardi added her third consecutive game with at least three goals, scoring the hat trick while Alkistis Benekou also found the back of the net twice.
Lena Mihailovic, Katie Sverchek, Daisy Carter and Abbey Kerth also got on the scoresheet for the Sun Devils.
The Devils took a 5-2 lead into the halftime break and outscored Indiana 7-3 in the second half to open the game up, keyed by three Chiappini goals and two from Pardi.
Indiana cut it within 5-3 less than a minute into the third quarter but the Devils used a 4-0 run starting with back-to-back goals by Chappini with Pardi and Benekou getting in there to complete the run and ASU never looked back.
E.B. Keeve had 14 saves in the contest, seven of those coming in the second quarter alone. Chiappini also matched a career-high with four assists in the contest while adding a team-leading three steals.
ASU again helped its cause on defense, limiting the Hoosiers to just five goals while having just two exclusions in the contest while Indiana had seven in the contest.
BOX SCORE
ASU: 2-3-3-4=12
Indiana: 1-1-1-2=5
GOALS
ASU: Chiappini 3, Pardi 3, Benekou 2, Mihailovic, Sverchek, Carter, Kerth
Indiana: Taylor 2, Jones 2, McNaught
SAVES:
ASU: Keeve 14
Indiana: Campbell 8
Long Beach State 5, ASU 3
After averaging 10.0 goals per game in its previous five games, the Sun Devil offense couldn’t get anything going in the finale of the ASU Invitational, dropping a 5-3 decision to No. 14 Long Beach State.
LBSU notched three goals in the third quarter, breaking a 2-2 tie and providing all the offense necessary with ASU unable to get anything going on the offensive end in what would be the lowest scoring output since a 10-3 loss to Stanford in April 2013.
Petra Pardi had two goals for the Devils and Viviane Bahia had the other goal. E.B. Keeve stopped 11 shots in the contest but the effort was not enough while LBSU goalie Alexis Butler had 11 saves of her own.
The Devils, who had excelled with a man advantage in recent weeks, went 0-for-10 in 6-on-5 situations.
Christina Kotsia led the 49ers with two goals, including a penalty shot goal to break to 2-2 tie with 4:37 left in the third quarter and spark the three-goal rally the open up the game.
BOX SCORE
ASU: 1-1-0-1=3
LBSU: 1-1-3-1=5
GOALS
ASU: Pardi 2, Bahia
LBSU: Kotsia 2, Robert, Brooks, Massier
SAVES:
ASU: Keeve 11
LBSU: Butler 11