TEMPE – The Arizona State University water polo team claimed the rubber match in the fifth and final game of their exhibition series against the Shanghai Sports Institute with a 9-5 victory to take the series, three games to two.
Mia Rycraw stopped 24 shots in the two games today, including 14 in the deciding match, capping off an impressive weekend in which she stopped 52 shots (10.2 per game).
Daisy Carter led all Sun Devil scorers over the weekend, netting six goals, while Katie Sverchek, Abbey Kerth and freshman Maud Koopman all added five goals.
The Sun Devils will officially kick off the season with the ASU Invitational, squaring off against Indiana in a doubleheader on Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center.
Recaps from today’s action can be found below.
Game 5 – ASU 9, Shanghai 5
Mia Rycraw stopped 14 shots and the Sun Devils put together a total team effort that matched their convincing win in the first game of the day Saturday to take a 9-5 victory in the rubber match of the team’s exhibition series against the Shanghai Sports Institute.
The Sun Devil defense rebounded in the final game following a pair of tough outings, combining for seven steals and allowing just five goals on 28 Shanghai shots (17.9 percent).
The ASU offense, on the flipside, came alive in game two after going 5-for-26 on its shots in the first game and struggled to get in any sort of offensive rhythm. The Devils took 25 shots in the second game and shot 36 percent from the field. ASU used a 4-0 scoring spurt over the last couple minutes of the third quarter and early in the fourth to blow the game away, taking a commanding 9-3 lead with 4:26 left and cruising to the finish line.
Katie Sverchek scored twice, including a penalty shot goal, and had two assists while Ao Gao and Abbey Kerth each added two goals each. The Sun Devil offense got much more involved on the perimeter, stretching the Shanghai zone and allowing Kerth to get off a couple of quality shots from the center position.
Maud Koopman continued to be a stat stuffer, adding another multi-assist game while adding a goal of her own.
Lena Mihailovic and Taylor Bertrand also added goals for the Devils.
Game 4 – Shanghai 7, ASU 5
The ASU offense attempted just 26 shots, but a slew of those included unlucky just-misses and balls of the posts and the Shanghai water polo club opened up the second half on a 4-1 run to pull away and the Devils were unable to recover en route to a 7-5 defeat.
ASU went 0-for-6 on the power play despite holding Shanghai to 0-for-4 on theirs.
Rycraw was solid in the cage with 10 saves.
No Sun Devil had more than a single goal, as Daisy Carter, Rosie Huck, Kayla Casas, Maud Koopman and Taylor Bertrand all found the back of the net but the Devils shot just 5-of-25 as a whole (20.0 percent).
Chen Huili dominated the inside for Shanghai with three goals while the goalkeeping combination of Wang Xueying and Peng Fei combined for 11 saves.