The ASU water polo team may have soundly beaten Cal Baptist on Saturday night, but the Sun Devils are disappointed in their rough loss to UCLA Saturday afternoon.
Behind a quick start and a lack of offense from ASU, No. 3 UCLA defeated the No. 7 Sun Devils 8-1.
As soon as the game started, the Bruins (18-3, 1-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) were ready to go, scoring four first quarter goals for a 4-1 lead at halftime.
“We never really recovered from that,” ASU coach Todd Clapper said.
The Sun Devils (5-7, 0-2 MPSF) shut out the Bruins in the second quarter and only allowed one goal in the third, but were unable to cut into the deficit.
“We didn’t finish our shots and that was the problem,” ASU senior Lynlee Smith said.
Senior Sarah Harris scored the lone goal for ASU, but the majority of the Sun Devils’ shots either hit the post or the crossbar.
While one goal was ASU’s lowest offensive output of the season, Clapper was able to find some positives in the game.
“We outplayed them for two and a half quarters after [the first],” Clapper said. “We created enough opportunities in the middle quarters that we should have been tied or in the lead going into the fourth quarter.”
The ASU offense may have been non-existent against UCLA, but the Sun Devils were able to regain their offensive output against Cal Baptist (10-7).
The Sun Devils beat the Lancers 16-7 and had offensive help from many different sources, as seven Sun Devils scored goals, while four had multi-goal games.
Smith led the offensive attack with five goals and junior Mariam Salloum added four more as she continues to lead the team.
“It was definitely one of the better games of the season [for me],” Smith said.
While Smith’s five goals stole the show, she credits her teammates with her performance and the outcome of the game.
“If the passes hadn’t have been on [target] then I wouldn’t have scored five goals,” Smith said. “Everyone played well.”
Clapper was also pleased with his team’s performance and noticed improvements from the earlier loss to UCLA.
“The offense started to look good and the defense started to look better,” Clapper said. “I was excited to see how we finished.”
ASU enjoyed playing at home for the first time this season, but will have to return to the road next weekend for a matchup against USC on Friday and a tournament in Claremont, Calif., against Bucknell, Colorado State and Long Beach State on Saturday.
Reach the reporter at william.boor@asu.edu
