April 25, 2015 HONOLULU - Junior goalkeeper Haley Cameron posted 11 saves while sophomore Bryn Lutz scored twice, but No. 5 UC Irvine converted 7 of 12 power-play opportunities to hold on to an 8-6 win over No. 8 UC Davis in Saturday's semifinal round of the Big West Conference women's water polo championship tournament.
The fifth-seeded Aggies move to 19-13 for the year. The top-seeded Anteaters improve to 19-7.
Lutz led five UC Davis scorers: junior Hailey Wright, junior Ariel Arcidiacono, junior Allyson Hansen and freshman Greta Kohlmoos each hit one. For UC Irvine, freshman Mary Brooks notched four goals while center McKenna Mitchell added two more.
Wright put UC Davis on the board in the opening minute with her cross-cage goal, but UCI answered with three straight in crafting a 3-1 lead at the midpoint of the first quarter. Mitchell converted a 6-on-5 with a shot from set then Brooks converted a power play from four meters out soon after. Arcidiacono responded by burying her own 6-on-5 goal on the opposite end to cut the lead back to one. UC Davis had two additional extra-player opportunities but the Anteaters blocked both shot attempts to maintain a 3-2 edge at quarter's end.
Neither team could alter the scoreboard for the first four minutes of the second quarter until Brooks posted a steal at two meters on her defensive end then delivered a long bomb to the high left corner from more than six meters out, doubling the Anteater margin to two with 3:43 to go. Lutz answered a minute later when her second-chance shot from the perimeter found the back of the cage, reducing the deficit to 4-3. That score held up into the halftime break.
Exclusions continued to play a factor in the scoring early in the third, and UC Davis continued to answer goal-for-goal in its attempts to equalize. Brooks completed her hat trick in the opening minute on a 6-on-5 chance to extend the lead to 5-3. However, Hansen fired a shot through three UCI defenders in a rare 6-on-4 opportunity on the next possession, once again bringing the deficit back to a single goal. The Aggies could not convert two additional power plays down the stretch, but sophomore Hannah Harvey got on her legs for a big interception which resulted in Kohlmoos' two-meter goal in the final seconds. Yet again, UCI held on to a one-goal lead at the quarter break.
UCI continued to convert 6-on-5 opportunities in extending its leading during the fourth quarter. Thornton and Brooks each connected on power play goals from the five-meter marker to push the `Eaters ahead to an 8-5 edge with 3:14 remaining. Goalkeeper Jillian Yocum protected her cage with three saves in the final frame, with only Lutz' goal in the final seconds closing the final gap for UC Davis.
The Aggies move to Sunday's third-place game with a chance for their first 20-win season since 2011.
| No. 8 UC Davis (19-13) | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | 6 |
| No. 5 UC Irvine (19-7) | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | 8 |
GOALS - UC Davis: Bryn Lutz 2, Hailey Wright 1, Ariel Arcidiacono 1, Allyson Hansen 1, Greta Kohlmoos 1. UCI: Mary Brooks 4, McKenna Mitchell 2, Cambria Shockley 1, Kelsey Thornton 1 .
GOALIE SAVES - UC Davis: Haley Cameron 11 (32:00). UCI: Jillian Yocum 7 (32:00).
