A close shave. It sounds like the slogan for any name-brand shaving device on the market today, but it belongs to the ASU water polo team.
While any marketing genius would salivate over the fact that his company claims to have the blade with the closest shave, the Sun Devils would rather retire their season-to-date trademark.
ASU split two games with nationally ranked teams on Saturday in the ASU Invitational at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center, losing to No. 4 San Diego State, 6-5, before defeating No. 19 Cal Baptist by the same score. The Cal Baptist game was the team's seventh one-goal decision so far in its young season. What's more frustrating for the team is the fact that it is only 2-5 in those games.
"It gets to you, for sure," said freshman driver Katie Hedley, who scored three goals in the team's loss to San Diego State. "But once we start winning, since we're such a new team, it'll build up and we should be very good."
While the victory certainly provided cause for celebration, the No. 18 Sun Devils (8-12, 1-6 in conference play) perhaps took more solace in their loss to San Diego State. Earlier in the season, the Aztecs dominated ASU in a 9-4 landslide, but the team's play Saturday was much more solid.
"It was a humongous accomplishment for us," head coach Vicki Gorman said. "We didn't play very well against them earlier (in the season), and today we played them very, very well. We now know we can beat them. That's huge."
Hedley echoed her coach's sentiments.
"It makes it more exciting to play against good teams," she said. "If we play good against them, we build confidence."
The Sun Devils return to action next weekend when they head to California to take on UC Santa Barbara and No. 2 UCLA.
Reach the reporter at vic.vela@asu.edu.
