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No. 17 Water Polo Upsets No. 9 San Jose State, 7-1, in Home Finale

No. 17 Water Polo Upsets No. 9 San Jose State, 7-1, in Home FinaleNo. 17 Water Polo Upsets No. 9 San Jose State, 7-1, in Home Finale

April 10, 2005

Box Score

TEMPE, Ariz. - For the second Sunday in a row, the No. 17 Arizona State University water polo team played host to Top 10 nationally ranked opponent and, for the second time as well, the Sun Devils came out victorious, this time upsetting No. 9 San Jose State, 7-1, in a game played at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center in Tempe. The Sun Devils, who improved to 7-13 overall and 3-6 in the MPSF, upset No. 8 UC Santa Barbara last Sunday, 8-7, in overtime. The Spartans, who had won four of their last five, were limited to one goal and fell to 10-13 overall and 2-6 in the conference standings.

In the first quarter of play, both teams tried to score with Sun Devil goalie Caylinn Wallace (Fr., Laguna Hills, Calif.) and Spartan goalie Kendra Adama each making several saves. But, with 11 seconds remaining, ASU broke the scoreless tie as Katie Hedley (So., Lake Forest, Calif.) was able to sneak a shot past the SJSU goalie for a 1-0 lead.

As both teams continued to apply offensive pressure, especially at two meters, the Sun Devils again scored, this time on a Raelyn Ritchie (Jr., Newport Beach, Calif.) shot with 4:43 remaining. Following a Spartan exclusion, ASU went back to the 2-meter area as Katy Lawlor (Fr., El Segundo, Calif.) was able to skip a low shot into the net after Ashley Bower (So., Bondi Beach, Australia) found her open in the middle. Bower went on to add a goal of her own a breakaway just 24 seconds later to sent the game into the intermission with ASU ahead, 4-0.

The second half opened with ASU scoring again as Bower netted her second tally on the day as ASU was on the advantage a little over one minute into the stanza. One minute later and again on the advantage, Lawlor was able to slip in a shot from five meters out to pad the lead to 6-0. With 3:15 showing in the third quarter, Hedley added her second goal of the game for a 7-0 lead before SJSU was able to respond with its only goal of the game, a Katie Morgan score.

Following the Spartan goal, neither team was able to score again with the Sun Devils winning, 7-1. Wallace, the defending MPSF Player of the Week, halted 10 shots before senior Jennifer Sanderson (Walnut Creek, Calif.), playing in her final home game against her former team, replaced Wallace with 2:15 remaining in the game. While in the cage, Sanderson did not face a shot, but did record one steal in the contest.

The win for the Sun Devils helped the team surpass its win total in MPSF play a year ago as ASU finished the campaign with a 2-9 record in the regular season.

Five games await the Sun Devils next weekend with four coming against nationally ranked foes. The weekend opens Thursday at No. 2 USC before ASU plays two games each on Friday and Saturday at the Long Beach Invitational. On Friday, the Sun Devils will face No. 11 UC Irvine and Santa Clara before meeting No. 17 Hartwick and No. 20 Cal Baptist Saturday.