IRVINE, Calif. – In their third meeting this season with No. 9 UC Santa Barbara, the No. 8 Sun Devils improved to 2-1 over the Gauchos with a 9-6 victory to open UC Irvine's Barbara Kalbus Invitational.
 
Maud Koopman led the way with four goals for the Sun Devils while Bente Rogge also had a multi-goal game (2). P.J. Allin, Julia Reyes, and Amira Van Buren also added a goal apiece.
 
Koopman, Van Buren, and Rogge gave ASU a 3-0 lead early on and Arizona State led 5-2 at the halftime break.
 
UCSB scored one just after halftime to pull within two, 5-3, and pulled within two once again just before the end of the third quarter, 6-4, but the Sun Devils held a two-goal lead going into the final period.
 
ASU increased their lead back to three goals, 7-4, just over a minute into the fourth quarter before UCSB scored two straight to trail by one, 7-6, with 4:57 remaining in the contest.
 
Koopman would score her fourth goal of the match while Reyes got on the scoreboard as the Sun Devils pulled away with two goals in the final two minutes.
 
The Sun Devils move on to face No. 1 USC at 8 am PT/9 am MT Saturday morning. The winner of the game will face the winner of No. 4 Cal/No. 5 Hawai'i at 2:45 pm PT/3:45 pm MT while the loser will face the loser of the same contest at 1:30 pm PT/2:30 pm MT Saturday.