By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Sun Devil women have climbed to No. 4 in the latest Collegiate Water Polo Association national rankings. The problem for ASU is that the three teams ahead of them -- No. 1 USC, No. 2 UCLA and No. 3 Stanford -- also play in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
"The goal is always to get to the NCAA Championships and once you're there you figure out the path to get to the championship game," coach Todd Clapper said. "But we don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves because there's only three at-large bids to the tournament so you have to make sure you finish at least in the top four in the conference to get a bid."
It's almost a given that the MPSF will get multiple at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament, which takes seven automatic bids from conference champs and three at-large bids. Either Stanford, USC or UCLA has won every title since 1996, and no school outside the state of California has ever finished higher than fourth at the tournament. The MPSF is far and away the nation's best conference.
Even so, the Sun Devils can do themselves a big favor by accomplishing something they have never done before: win a road game at UCLA. The Devils (17-5) and Bruins (20-3) face off on Friday in Los Angeles in a game televised on the Pac-12 Networks. With a win, ASU would climb into third place in the MPSF standings with just Sunday's game at San Diego State left before the conference tournament begins on April 29 in Bakersfield.
"In the offseason we talked about our path to the NCAAs and how we're going to get there," senior Daisy Carter said. "It's an Olympic year and a lot of teams have lost players who are training with their national teams. Since the season started it’s been obvious that it's an even playing field and anyone can get that No. 1 spot so our goals have definitely changed."
Success will do that. Since a three-game losing streak that Carter and Clapper said served as wake-up call, ASU has won 13 of its last 15 games and 10 of its last 11, including an overtime win over now-No. 8 Cal and a win over then-No. 5 Michigan (now No. 6).
"That next week we came back it was obvious everyone wanted to get better and improve and we were ready to move on -- everyone was really focused and came to practice ready to work," said Carter, who scored the winning goal with the shot clock winding down in the second sudden death overtime against the Bears. "The final shot was awesome and beating Cal was the most memorable moment so far, but also I also think that losing streak ended up being really important for us because we moved so far forward after it."
Sophomore goalkeeper Mia Rycraw will wear a splint for this weekend's games to protect a fractured finger she insists won’t be a hindrance.
"It's not a problem. I've actually done it before," she said.
Rycraw said she never considered sitting out this last weekend.
"We're ranked No. 4, which is really exciting, but we want to be ranked No. 1," she said. "I am completely confident that we can be the No. 1 team. Our team chemistry is the best it's ever been "