UC Irvine Opens Big West Play at Cal State Fullerton; UC San Diego - UCI Athletics
IRVINE, Calif. – The Anteaters enter the Big West portion of the schedule with two road contests, the first at Cal State Fullerton (Mar. 5) before going to down to No. 8/8 UC San Diego on Mar. 8.Due to pool issues at the Titans home pool, the game with Cal State Fullerton has been moved over to Fullerton Junior College.
Week Seven Notes
GAME SCHEDULE
No. 10/9 UC Irvine at Cal State Fullerton
Wednesday, March 5 | 6:00 PM | Fullerton Junior College
Live Stats
No. 10/9 UC Irvine at No. 8/8 UC San Diego
Saturday, March 8 | 12:00 PM | Canyonview Aquatics Center
Live Stats | Watch
THIS WEEK'S STORYLINES
> UC Irvine enters the week ranked tenth in the CWPA Weekly Poll and ninth in the Association of College Water Polo Coaches poll
> UCI will open Big West play on the road, first at Cal State Fullerton (Mar. 5) and then at UC San Diego (Mar. 8)
> Cal State Fullerton enters the contest with a 10-11 overall record
> The Titans went 1-3 last weekend at the Convergence Invitational with all of their games ending in a margin of one-point
> CSUF only holds one Division I win on the year versus Iona (W, 13-8) at the Arizona State Invitational
> Destiny Hernandez leads the Titans with 49 points (32 goals, 17 assists) followed by Emme Doube-Macleod with 44 points (26 goals, 18 assists)
> Annabelle Sherman has a team-high 19 steals which is closely followed by Hernandez and Doube-Macleod at 18 and 16 respectively
> Sherman has 141 saves on the season in 18 games played
> No. 8/8 UC San Diego heads into the weekend with an 11-9 overall record, 1-0 in the Big West, and currently sits in first place in the standings
> The Tritons opened conference action at No. 13/15 UC Davis where they collected a 15-8 win
> Caroline Christl is the offensive engine for UCSD, scoring 58 goals and nine assists for 67 points and has a team-best four field blocks
> Kendall Thomas is next up with 34 goals and seven assists for 41 points to go with 37 drawn exclusions
> Both Sydney Munatones and Courtney Okumura have a team-high 19 assists
> In the cage, Bria Zwaschka has recorded 84 saves and 18 steals in 15 games played while Lexi Stahl has appeared in 12 games and has tallied 48 saves and 10 steals
NOTES
> UC Irvine went 3-1 at the Convergence Invitational, dropping the first game and then winning three straight
> Against No. 12/13 LMU (L, 9-8)...
-- Attacker Kennedy East was the only Anteater to post a multi-score game with two goals
-- Six UCI players contributed the remaining goals
-- Brooke Hourigan dished a game-high two assists and Rachel Kirchner stopped five shots in 32 minutes
-- UCI converted five of their eight power play opportunities (5-8, 0.625)
-- The Anteaters dropped their first contest to the Lions since Feb 25, 2012 (L, 9-6)
> Against La Salle (W, 20-6)...
-- Center Nioka Thomas led the charge on the attack with a hat-trick
-- Sara Naulty, Avy Newton, Madi O'Hara, and Annabelle Mundelius rounded out the multi-goal scorers
-- Rachel Kirchner played 24 minutes between the pipes, stopping five shots
-- Ella Walker came in to play the remaining eight minutes in cage where she recorded five blocks
-- UCI was 4-8 (0.500) on power plays to La Salle's 2-11 (0.182)
-- The Explorers were only 2-3 on penalty shots while the Anteaters were a perfect 5-5
> Against No. 20/20 San Diego State (W, 18-6)...
-- The Anteaters, who trailed by one at the half, 4-3, posted 10 scores in the third period while holding the Aztecs scoreless to build a commanding edge
-- Nioka Thomas (3-6), Kennedy East (3-4), and Gracie Helberg (3-3), all notched hat-tricks in the win
-- Maja Layden and Madi O'Hara followed with two goals each
-- Lauren Hett, Libby Alexander, Pippa Heaver, Gabbie Graniello, and Deirdre Murphy rounded out the goal scoring
-- Sophomore Rachel Kirchner made seven stops in the cage
-- Brooke Hourigan, Layden, Hett, and Heaver all dished out two assists
> Against Cal State Monterey Bay (W, 20-2)...
-- Madeline Kasper had five points (two goals and three assists) to led the 'Eaters
-- Sara Naulty's three goals were a season high as were her four points
-- The 'Eaters drew just three exclusions, all penalties, with Madi O'Hara drawing two of them
-- UCI's defense recorded 12 steals with Nioka Thomas and Vivian Bailey each snagging two
-- UC Irvine out-shot CSUMB 36-21 shooting 56% on the match
> Lauren Hett is the team leader at 36 points (23 goals, 13 assists) with Brooke next at 34 tallies (15 goals, 19 assists)
> Nioka Thomas has 30 points on the season, tying the team-best in goals (23) and has dished out seven assists
> Madi O'Hara leads the Anteaters with 23 drawn exclusions
> Hett also holds the steal lead in steals (15) while Kennedy East has the top-spot in field blocks (6)
> Rachel Kirchner has 55 saves in the cage through 16 games and Ella Walker has 27
