UCLA Women’s Water Polo Cruises Past UC Santa Barbara, 13-3, to Advance at Kalbus Invitational

By the time the UCSB Gauchos got on the scoreboard versus the UCLA Bruins yesterday, the game was already over.

That’s because the Bruins scored four first quarter goals while the Gauchos didn’t respond until the second quarter. Lizette Rozeboom was the first Bruin on the board when she scored with just under five and a half minutes left in the quarter. Three minutes later, Nicole Reynolds gave UCLA a 2-0 lead and, just 30 seconds later, Maddie Musselman scored her first goal to make it 3-0. Musselman would add another 38 seconds later to complete the Bruins’ first quarter barrage.

UCSB would answer that in the second quarter by cutting the UCLA lead in half with consecutive goals. But, Musselman would finish her first half hat trick and Roxy Wheaton would add another goal to give the Bruins a 6-2 halftime lead.

The third quarter looked a lot like the first with Rozeboom scoring the first goal of the quarter with just under five minutes left and Reynolds following Rozeboom for her second goal of the game. Bronte Halligan decided to join the party and it was 9-2 after three.

In the fourth, UCLA would score goals from Myrna Simmons and Emily Skelly before the Gauchos would finally get their third goal of the game. The Bruins would add a goal from Grace Reego while Skelly picked up her second of the quarter as UCLA cruised to the 13-3 win.

Elsewhere in Group D, #5 Hawai’i defeated San Diego State, 13-4, to set up this morning’s quarterfinal game against the Bruins. The winner of this game will play the winner of the first quarterfinal game between #1 Stanford and #8 Pacific while the two losers will meet in the Loser’s Bracket.

This is your UCLA Women’s Water Polo Kalbus Invitational open thread.


Go Bruins!!!