#3 UCLA Women’s Water Polo Defeats #5 Hawai’i, 12-8; Hosts LMU and Fresno State

The Bruins will host a tripleheader today as part of the UCLA Mini-Tournament. First up, UCLA will take on the #15 LMU Lions at 8:30 am and they will follow that with a rematch of last weekend’s win over Fresno State immediately after the game against the Lions at 9:45 am. Then, after both LMU and Fresno State each face Hawai’i, the Bruins will return to the pool for an exhibition game against UCLA alumnae at 1:30 pm.

Last Time Out

Last night, the Bruins handed #5 Hawai’i their first loss of the season in UCLA’s home opener. UCLA topped the Rainbow Wahine, 12-8. Maddie Musselman scored five goals while Bronte Halligan notched a hat trick.

Musselman opened the game by scoring the Bruins’ first two goals of the game. Roxy Wheaton made it 3-0 with 36 seconds left in the first quarter.

Hawai’i opened the scoring in the second quarter with a power play goal by Maxine Schaap 43 seconds into the quarter. With 5:37 left in the half, Val Ayala nabbed a power play goal of her own to make it 4-1, UCLA. Just over two minutes later, Hawai’i cut the Bruins’ lead to back to two, but UCLA responded with a goal from Halligan and a pair of goals by Musselman to make it 7-2 at the half.

In the third quarter, Ayala’s second goal of the game stretched UCLA’s lead to 8-2. But Hawai’i didn’t just give in. The Rainbow Wahine scored a pair of goals which sandwiched Halligan’s second goal of the game, which put the Bruins up 9-4 and which proved to be the game-winner.

Hawai’i made an attempt to comeback in the fourth quarter with four goals in the final frame, but the Bruins never let them get any closer than four goals down as UCLA added goals of their own from Musselman, Halligan and Rachel Whitelegge.

Loyola Marymount Lions

Last weekend, the Lions opened the season at the California Baptist Mini-Invitational where they cruised past Chapman and Pomona-Pitzer, 18-1 and 13-6, respectively.

Fresno State Bulldogs

Fresno State moved up a three spots in this week’s poll despite losing three of four games at the Cal Cup. The Bulldogs lost to UC Berkeley, Stanford and UCLA, but their win over #6 Long Beach State allowed them to move up to #14 this week.

Outlook

The Bruins should stay undefeated today. In fact, the game UCLA is most likely to lose would be the exhibition game against UCLA alumnae rather than either of the first two games this morning. I’d be surprised if the Bruins don’t top Fresno State by a bigger margin than last weekend because UCLA is at home this week.

This is your UCLA Mini-Tournament women’s water polo open thread.


Go Bruins!!!