TEMPE – For the second time this season, the Arizona State University water polo program swept the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation weekly awards as Abbey Kerth and Maud Koopman were named the Player and Newcomer of the Week, as announced by the MPSF on Tuesday.
As the Sun Devil senior class celebrated Senior Day, senior Abbey Kerth played a pivotal role in the ASU’s huge 7-6 double sudden death victory over Cal on Saturday.
Kerth scored twice for ASU, the first stopping the bleeding as Cal jumped to a 3-1 lead in the second and the second goal putting the Devils up 5-4 in the fourth quarter.
But perhaps her biggest play of the game came in the second overtime session with ASU trailing 6-5. Needing a goal to stay alive, Kerth was literally under the water as the ball was dished inside to her at center but she came out of the water and showed incredible presence of mind to realize that Ao Gao defender left her in an attempt to get the ball.
Kerth beat three defenders to the ball as she came out of the water for essentially a no look pass to a wide-open Gao in the corner and the fellow senior lobbed home the equalizer with just over 1:30 left in the game to force sudden death.
These two huge plays late in the game from @abbeykerth helped her earn @MPSF_WWaterPolo Player of the Week!https://t.co/F5fMJH8QQq
— ASU Water Polo (@ASUWaterPolo) April 6, 2016
The senior drew three exclusions in the game as well and was a monster in the middle of the pool both on offense and defense as she garnered the first-ever MPSF weekly honor of her career.
Maud Koopman continued to keep her pace as one of the top newcomers in the country as she took home her third Newcomer of the Week honor of the season, joining Stanford’s Kat Klass and USC’s Amanda Longan as the only three-time winners of the honor this year. It is also the third time in the last four weeks that Koopman has been honored.
The true freshman attacker took over the ASU lead in goals scored this season with her huge two-goal effort in the victory over Cal. Koopman also added an assist and a steal in the effort.
The Dutch attacker got ASU on the board in the second, evening the game at 1-1. She then helped ASU climb back from a 3-1 hole with her second goal, bringing things square at 3-3 midway through the third quarter before helping the Sun Devils take their first lead of the game on her assist to Ao Gao a couple minutes later.
Koopman now leads the team in just about every major statistical category this season with 26 goals, 18 assists and 30 steals.
The two honors were the fifth and sixth weekly awards earned by the Sun Devils this season with Mia Rycraw being named MPSF Player of the Week twice and Koopman being the Newcomer of the Week twice before as well.
The Sun Devils will close the season out on the road in the final three weekends, starting with a doubleheader this weekend against MPSF foe San Jose State at 11 a.m. PT followed by a contest against CSU Monterey Bay at 2 p.m.