April 29, 2011
TEMPE – Annabelle Carter and Lynlee Smith both scored twice and the 11th-ranked and eighth-seeded Arizona State University water polo team held a pair of one-goal leads early on, but was unable to hold on as top-ranked and top-seeded Stanford scored a 15-6 win in the opening game of the MPSF Championships being played at San Jose State in San Jose, Calif., on Friday. The loss dropped the Sun Devils to 11-13 overall on the year while the Cardinal remained undefeated at 24-0 this season.
Smith put the Sun Devils on top, 1-0, just 50 seconds into the game as she scored her 31st goal of the year before SU tied the score shortly after. Then, Mariam Salloum put the Sun Devils back into the lead at the 5:01 mark (just 29 seconds after SU tied the game at 1-1) to regain the lead.
Despite the quick start, however, the Cardinal went on to score the next 10 goals in a row, a stretch that ended with Carter’s first goal of the contest at 1:26 remaining in the third to bring the score to 11-3 for SU. In the fourth, both teams scored three times each to bring about the final score with Smith and Carter each scoring once and Searra Silverberg adding a goal with 2:09 remaining in the game.
With her goal in the first quarter of play, Salloum brought her team-leading season total to 36 goals while raising her career total to 84, the eighth-most in school history. Salloum is now tied with Tessa Wyborny for eighth.
In the goal, Ianeta Hutchinson recorded five saves in the game while Madison Moore also played, but did not record a save. SU’s Amber Oland stopped 10 Sun Devil shots while Kate Baldoni added six for the Cardinal.
On Saturday at 10 a.m., the Sun Devils will face #4/#5 USC in the first of two consolation contests. The winner of that game will come back on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. to face the winner of the #3/#5 Hawai’i vs. #7/#9 San Diego State game for fifth place in the tournament while the losers of both games on Saturday will meet at 10 a.m. on Sunday with the winner taking seventh place.
#1/#1 Stanford def. #11/#8 Arizona State, 15-6
AS: 2 - 0 - 1 - 3 = 6
SU: 6 - 4 - 2 - 3 = 15
Goals
AS: Carter 2, Smith 2, Salloum, Silverberg
SU: Dries 3, Kennedy 2, A. Lo 2, Seidman 2, Dunlevie, Krueger, Lee, K. Lo, Menon, Suggs
Saves
AS: Hutchinson 5
SU: Oland 10, Baldoni 6