Feb. 25, 2005
TEMPE, Ariz. - For the second tournament in a row this season, the No. 18 Arizona State University water polo team played its first game of the weekend and needed extra time to declare a winner. And, unfortunately for the Sun Devils, the outcome was the same as ASU dropped a heartbreaking 7-6 decision in sudden victory to No. 19 Princeton Friday morning at the Daktronics Gaucho Invitational in Santa Barbara, Calif. The Sun Devils slipped to 1-4 on the season after surrendering a three-goal lead late in the contest.
In the opening weekend of action for the Sun Devils this year (Feb. 5-6), ASU dropped a tough 8-7 overtime decision to No. 10 UC Santa Barbara. ASU would rebound in its second contest that weekend before dropping its final two games at the UC San Diego Arena Invitational. Coupled with the PU loss, the Sun Devils have lost three in a row.
ASU started the game on fire as Katie Hedley (So., Lake Forest, Calif.) and Raelyn Ritchie (So., Newport Beach, Calif.) each tallied scores to give the Sun Devils a 2-0 lead following the first quarter of the contest. Ashley Bower (So., Bondi Beach, Australia) continued the ASU scoring attack as she netted a pair of goals at the start of the quarter (5:53 and 5:10) to push the advantage to 4-0. But the Tigers answered with a pair of goals in a row (4:48 and 3:20) to cut the score to 4-2. Hedley responded at the 1:30 mark as she put away a 4-meter penalty shot to send the game into the half with the Sun Devils leading, 5-2.
The third quarter was quite for both teams as only one goal was scored. Bower completed the hat trick as she found the back of the net with 30 seconds remaining to push the ASU advantage back to four scores.
Although the ASU defense had held Princeton scoreless for 13 and one-half minutes going back to the 3:20 mark of the second quarter, the Tiger offense came to life with just two minutes remaining to begin the comeback. PU tallied goals with 2:09, 1:36 and 1:16 remaining to bring the game to a 6-5 ASU lead before scoring with 34 seconds remaining in the game to send the contest to overtime tied at six.
In the two, five-minute overtime periods, neither team was able to score with the only markings on the scoresheet coming in the form of exclusions; two for ASU and one for PU. In the sudden victory period, however, an exclusion on the Sun Devils enabled the Tigers to complete the comeback as Elyse Colgan tallied on a 4-meter penalty shot with 1:03 remaining.
The Sun Devils return to the pool later today to face conference rival and No. 1 ranked UCLA at 4:10 p.m.