Feb. 9, 2013
SAN DIEGO - The #5 Arizona State University water polo team (8-0, 0-0 MPSF) had no troubles on the first day of competition at the UCSD Triton Invitational in San Diego on Saturday, cruising past Marist and #19 UC San Diego and into a spot in tomorrow's semifinals.
The Sun Devils will have a rematch against No. 6 UC Irvine - a team that the Sun Devils edged in a 5-4 decision two weeks ago - as they hope to advance to the finals in the tournament for the second consecutive year.
Recaps from today's contests are below.
ARIZONA STATE 14, Marist 4
Arizona State opened the weekend of competition with a rout over Marist, putting the Red Foxes away early en rout to a 14-4 decision to kick off the UCSD Invite.
Leading 3-2 with 4:42 left in the first quarter, the Sun Devils ripped off four consecutive goals to end out the frame to take a 7-2 advantage into the second in a game that never was close from that point on.
Shannon Haas was near unstoppable out of the center position as the senior scored five goals to boost her career total to 133 and move herself into third on ASU's all-time scoring list.
Senior Alicia Brightwell had her fifth game of three or more goals out of the six she has played in this season, netting three while scoring an impressive six steals on the contest to help ASU improve to 7-0.
Petra Pardi scored two for ASU while Abigail Kerth, Amanda Young, Anna Kertes, Bella Morrison also found the back of the net while E.B. Keeve had 12 saves in the cage.
ARIZONA STATE 10, #19 UC San Diego 4
The event hosts were no match from Arizona States high powered offense as the Sun Devils logged their seventh double-digits scoring game of the eight games played this season and ASU rolled passed the #19 Tritons, 10-4.
Shannon Haas and Petra Pardi to score five goals in the second quarter to UCSD's zero, giving the Sun Devils a 7-1 edge heading to the break that they wouldn't relinquish.
Brightwell also forced four steals on the contests as she stretched her team lead in the category with 34 on the season - an incredible number after scoring 27 in the entirety of 2012.
E.B. Keeve was stellar again, logging 13 saves to help the Sun Devils improve to 8-0 on the season. Keeve now has had double-digit saves in seven of ASU's eight contests this season.
ASU also got goals from Katie Sverchek and Gao Ao - the latter of whom was a force on the defensive end of the pool for the Sun Devils, helping to shut down the offenses in both games on the day.