The ASU water polo team capped off the 2010 season with an eighth-place finish in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Los Angeles this past weekend.
The No. 9 Sun Devils (16-15) suffered three losses over the weekend in their final matches of the season.
Although ASU earned a winning record during 2010, the Sun Devils finished winless against conference opponents.
“It’s disappointing — we have higher expectations and goals,” ASU coach Todd Clapper said. “This is not where we intend to finish, it’s not something we are going to be happy with or pat ourselves on the back for.”
With the No. 8 seed in the tournament, ASU took to the pool against the No. 1 seed Stanford Cardinal (24-2) in the opening round and fell 10-5.
ASU junior attacker Sarah Harris and sophomore attacker Mariam Salloum sparked the ASU offense when each netted goals in the first frame, but the Cardinal defense shut out the Sun Devils in the second quarter to take a 5-2 lead into halftime.
Stanford came out fighting in the second half with three goals in the third quarter.
“They pushed the tempo in the second half and increased their lead,” Clapper said. “They created a buffer of a lead that was tough to come back from.”
ASU senior attacker Bonnie Miles countered with a goal of her own in the final quarter. However, Stanford added two fourth-quarter goals to seal the victory over the Sun Devils.
Following their loss to Stanford, the Sun Devils faced off against No. 4 Hawaii (18-8) on Saturday and dropped that game 7-4. The Rainbow Wahine was coming off a defeat at the hands of eventual tournament champion, No. 5 UCLA.
Senior center Kelly Phelps’ goal gave ASU an early lead in the first quarter, and sophomore attacker Kelsey White and freshman center Shannon Haas added goals for the Sun Devils to lead 3-2 at the halfway point.
But UH was far from finished heading into the second half. The Rainbow Wahine defense shut down ASU in the third frame while the UH offense took control. UH fired three goals past ASU sophomore goalie Dana Harvey to take the lead.
“It’s kind of strange — we got some good looks at goal, but didn’t find the back of the net,” Clapper said. “We felt like we could come back and had lots of good opportunities.”
Phelps netted her second goal of the game with under eight minutes to play in the match, but UH increased its lead with two more goals in the final quarter to defeat ASU.
The final day of the MPSF championships brought No. 6 San Jose State (17-14) into the water against the Sun Devils in the seventh-place match, where the Sun Devils lost a close 10-9 match.
SJSU exploded for five goals in the first period to jump out on top.
“We spotted them five goals,” Clapper said. “We showed our character and battled back and took the lead.”
Goals by Salloum and White gave the Sun Devils a two-score advantage in the second quarter, but ASU struggled to capitalize on offense throughout the final quarters of the game.
“We just missed,” Clapper said. “We threw them at the goalie and didn’t find openings.”
With just over seven minutes remaining in the game, the score was knotted at nine apiece. SJSU’s goal gave it a one-score advantage, and that would be all they would need to beat the Sun Devils.
After a winless performance at the conference championships, Clapper said his Sun Devils showed glimpses of things to come.
“All the games this weekend, we showed some really good signs of what we are capable of,” Clapper said.
Despite the start of next season being several months away, preparation for the 2011 campaign will begin shortly.
“It starts right away, we have really good potential with the group returning,” Clapper said. “I’m confident we’ll take big steps forward between now and January when we’ll see some of these teams again.”
Reach the reporter at gregory.dillard@asu.edu
