TEMPE -- The No. 9 Arizona State University water polo team opened up the 2016 ASU Invitational with a pair of dominating victories, earning its first MPSF win of the year with a 13-4 win over CSU Bakersfield before routing Redlands, 24-1.
A week after scoring just three against top-ranked USC, the Sun Devils (9-4, 1-1 MPSF) exploded on offense with 11 different players finding the back of the net over the course of the day. Stephanie Contreras led all scorers with six total goals on the afternoon – including a career-best five-goal performance against Redlands.
Lena Mihailovic and Taylor Bertrand each added five goals while Kayla Casas – while remaining scoreless – dished out five assists on the day and was very solid in the middle of the pool. Rosie Huck was dominant against Redlands, scoring four and drawing an incredible seven exclusions as she saw significant time at center in the contest.
On the flipside, the defense was stifling in forcing an incredible 52 turnovers on the afternoon while allowing just five total goals. All but one Sun Devil earned at least one steal in the two games with Ao Gao leading the way with seven total.
The Sun Devils will conclude this portion of the ASU Invitational tomorrow starting at 10:30 a.m. Arizona time against No. 16 Wagner before wrapping up the tournament with an exhibition against Redlands.
Full recaps of today’s victories can be found below.
ASU 13, #24 CSUB 4
The Sun Devils opened the day with a dominating effort on offense and defense to earn their first MPSF conference victory of the year, 13-4, over No. 24 CSU Bakersfield.
Taylor Bertrand led the attack for Arizona State, finishing the game with three goals, joining Katie Sverchek, Maud Koopman and Lena Mihailovic to total four Sun Devils that netted multiple goals. Ao Gao did her part to propel the Sun Devils to a victory with a goal of her own and a team-leading six steals.
Koopman added two assists in the effort, showing great awareness in the pool, and notched three steals in an impressive overall effort on both ends of the pool.
The Sun Devils tabbed 27 steals in the effort as they absolutely stifled the Roadrunner attack, allowing CSUB to get off just 11 shots on goal while the Devils pressed their offense to the tune of 34 shots.
The Sun Devils began the game with a commanding 6-0 lead against the Roadrunners, scoring three goals in the last minute of the first quarter alone. Two of those six goals came from Sverchek, who added a punctuation goal with her strike from 10 meters at the buzzer.
Bakersfield got on the board three times in the second period, however, the Sun Devils quickly answered back with four goals of their own by Koopman, Mihailovic, Daisy Carter and Stephanie Contreras.
After an unusually quiet third period that saw only one goal by Claudia Abad, the Sun Devils tacked on two goals in the fourth period, both from the hands of Bertrand as she earned praise from head coach Todd Clapper for her shot selection. She capped the game with a beautiful goal off the inside post to punctuate her effort.
ASU commanded the game with a man advantage, scoring on four of their five chances while holding the Roadrunners to 0-for-5 in power play situations though they did manage one goal on a penalty shot.
Arizona State has one more game slated for today, playing Redlands University at 4:30 p.m. MST.
ASU 24, Redlands 1
The Sun Devils set a new school record for margin of victory with 24-1 rout over Redlands to close out the afternoon.
Ten Devils got on the scoresheet and seven did so multiple times in a game that saw ASU come one goal shy of tying its school record for goals in a game. Despite that, it did break a school record with the final margin of victory with the 23 goals surpassing the 21 goal margin ASU logged in a 23-2 win over CSU Monterey Bay in 2014.
Stephanie Contreras moved into a tie for 10th all time at ASU for single game goals as she found the back of the net five times in the contest, easily surpassing her previous career best of three goals. The junior added an assist and two steals to complete her effort.
Rosie Huck was borderline unstoppable at center, spelling starter Abbey Kerth for a game and responding with a career-high four goals with two steals while drawing an unreal seven exclusions in the process.
Freshman PJ Allin scored her first career hat trick, dishing out two assists and tying for the team lead with three steals. Sophomore Lena Mihailovic scored three as well and also had three assists. Freshman Julia Reyes added to the all-aroud effort as she logged her first two career goals as a Sun Devil while adding three assists.
Taylor Barrett played three quarters in the cage for ASU and stopped nine shots – including a penalty shot – while allowing just one goal in her most impressive appearance to date.