LOS ANGELES – Mia Rycraw nearly set an NCAA Tournament save record and the Arizona State offense rolled over UC San Diego as the Devils took fifth overall at the NCAA Championships with an 8-2 victory on Sunday in Los Angeles.
Daisy Carter finished her Sun Devil career with a hat trick while Maud Koopman and Lena Mihailovic each added two goals each and all three scored in the decisive third quarter as ASU blew the game open, outscoring UCSD 3-0 in the frame.
The fifth-place finished matched the program’s best finish in Arizona State history and is the highest finish for any Sun Devil athletics program this season and the first top-10 finish for the department this year as well.
FINAL | ASU 8, UCSD 2! Devils take fifth at the NCAA Tournament as Rycraw nearly sets tournament record for saves! pic.twitter.com/yxJ5HWo9yK
— ASU Water Polo (@ASUWaterPolo) May 15, 2016
Rycraw finished the game with a career-best 20 saves and nearly pitched a perfect game in the process. One of those goals came on a tough 2-on-1 situation during the Tritons gimmick offense late in the game while the other came on a power play early in the game. Outside of the defensive lapse that allowed the 2-on-1, the sophomore goalie was perfect in 6-on-6 situations and stuffed the UCSD offense on six other power play opportunities.
“I think Mia allows us to do a lot of different things both 6-on-6 and 5-on-6. So we just felt like we could key in their shooters that way they would stay back a little more and make sure we could shrink the goal for Mia, that way we would have some success,” head coach Todd Clapper said after the game. “Field players did a good job at blocking the corners and Mia was really great at the center of the cage and she was making some really good saves.”
Rycraw was pulled with about two minutes remaining in the game and the game in hand, finishing two saves behind the current starting goaltender for the U.S. National team Ashleigh Johnson’s 2015 tournament single-game record of 22 saves. Rycraw finished with 48 saves in the tournament (16.0 per game), also two saves behind Johnson’s 2015 NCAA record 50 saves. The cage-minder became just the third Sun Devil in history to reach 20 saves in a game and it was the second-highest save total for a game ending in regulation in program history.
“When she (Rycraw) has 20 saves and we’re trying to skip, we’re trying to go high, we’re trying to go quick, we’re trying to do it off cross passes, we’re trying to do it on counter attacks, we’re trying to get isolation by getting somebody down, we are trying everything we possibly can,” UCSD head coach Brad Kreutzkamp said. “She was just in the zone today. I give her all the credit in the world.”
The Sun Devil offense was 4-of-7 on power play opportunities, carving up the Triton defense en route to a 6-0 run after UCSD tied the game early in the second quarter on their lone power play goal of the game as the Devils limited UCSD to just 1-of-7 shooting on 6-on-5 situations.
The Devils held all three opponents on the weekend to five goals or fewer, bringing the team's season goals against average to 5.31 - easily setting the school record and two goals per game fewer than the team allowed last season.
Carter scored two of her goals in the fourth quarter as she picked up her team-leading sixth hat trick of the year, three more than any other player on the team.
The Sun Devils finished the season with a 21-9 record, reaching the 20-win milestone for just the third time in program history. Head Coach Todd Clapper picked up his 300th career win at the tournament and moved to 105-42 in the past five years at the helm of the program.