After playing its second sudden death battle of the MPSF championships, the ASU water polo team took fourth place, falling to California 8-7.
The game was a tough battle of back and forth action from both sides, but it ended differently than the other sudden death game the Sun Devils played earlier in the tournament.
The game began and the first half of play was fairly uneventful on both sides.
Cal scored first on a six-on-five opportunity to take the early 1-0 lead.
Both sides turned the ball over several times in a row to take up a lot of time in the first quarter.
Junior attacker Petra Pardi and freshman center Alkistis Benekou both drew exclusions but failed to score.
The first quarter ended with Cal leading 1-0 and not a lot of action having taken place.
At the start of the second, both teams had power play opportunities but only Cal was able to score, giving them a 2-0 lead.
Sophomore defender Kate Enoka drew an exclusion with two minutes left in the half, but was unable to score on the opportunity.
With just seconds left in the second quarter, freshman attacker Izabella Chiappini scored to end the first half of play.
Cal lead ASU 2-1 going into the second half.
At the start of the third quarter, Benekou drew an exclusion but the Sun Devils could not score on the power play opportunity.
Seconds later, junior defender Ao Gao scored to tie the game at two a piece.
Cal was able to sore on its next power play opportunity to take back the lead.
After another failed power play attempt by ASU, Cal was able to score again to up its lead by two.
The same play was repeated a few minutes later, with ASU unable to convert their power play chances into goals. Cal was up 5-2 at the end of the third quarter.
At the start of the fourth quarter, junior utility Liz Kreek scored but was closely followed by another Cal goal to bring the score to 6-3.
After a Cal turnover, sophomore attacker Daisy Carter scored to bring ASU closer.
The Sun Devils and the Golden Bears both turned the ball over back and forth before Chiappini scored again for ASU to bring them down by one.
Cal had a power play opportunity but redshirt sophomore E.B. Keeve blocked the shot with 1:40 left in the game and ASU down 6-5.
After an ASU timeout, Benekou drew an exclusion and ASU made good on it. Enoka scored to tie the game with seconds left.
Cal called a timeout with four seconds left in the game and their attempt at scoring was unsuccessful.
The Sun Devils headed to overtime for the second time during the MPSF tournament.
At the start of the first overtime period, both teams drew multiple exclusions but could not produce.
The score remained tied 6-6 at the end of the first overtime period.
During the second period of overtime, junior attacker Annie Kertes scored with 1:38 left to give ASU a 7-6 lead.
Cal drew an exclusion shortly after and called a timeout. After its timeout, the Golden Bears scored to tie the game again at seven a piece with one minute remaining.
Cal excluded Gao and took a shot for the win but missed. The game headed to sudden death overtime in which the first goal would win.
Cal gained possession of the ball and took it to the goal to score and win the game, 8-7.
Keeve had 16 saves in the game and ASU took home fourth place from the MPSF championships and has officially ended its season.
Reach the reporter at Megan.Kavy@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @meggiekavy
