49er women’s water polo struggles at home



By Katie Plourd
Online Forty-Niner
Sports Editor


Grey clouds rolled in Saturday afternoon over The Beach pool for the season opener of women’s water polo, which resulted in the No. 12-ranked 49ers falling to the No. 11-ranked UC Irvine Anteaters.

The Beach lacked a tight defense from the start as it received four ejection penalties in the first quarter. The Beach’s man-down defense gave the Anteaters the leg up in the first quarter. Two-meter defense Tara Campell received two ejections and Christina Wensman received one. The Beach failed to defend during all the penalties allowing the Anteaters to score off the three ejections and leaving the score 3-0.

After warming up in the first quarter senior Cassie Azevedo kicked into gear as she stole the ball from the Anteaters and put away a shot from the top placing the 49er on the scoreboard, 3-1.

Azevedo racked up two more goals in the second quarter, but The Beach’s defense was still shaky. Irvine’s 2-meter offense Nicole Flacco stole a pass from The Beach in the second quarter and had a clean breakaway for the goal, but goalie Kim Hayes came to the rescue, shutting down the Anteaters. Finally, The Beach began to make use of a gap defense and stole an Anteater pass into set at the end of the second quarter.

As The Beach’s offense began to perk up, the Anteaters started pressuring the players on the outside, fouling every pass. Despite their efforts to stop The Beach’s play, Long Beach State’s Campell flew past the Anteaters goalie on a clean pass from the outside tying up the game 5-5.

After an ejection for The Beach’s Marina Centetti, Hayes saved another goal by taking a ball to the face for the save. Minutes later, Centetti, with an assist from Wensman, sunk one past the Anteaters’ net giving The Beach a one-point lead.  The Anteaters then came right back and snuck the ball past Hayes with a skip shot from Irvine senior driver Jessica Lewis, tying the score once again. Lewis perfected the skip shot minutes later and brought Irvine into the lead.

The 49ers host USC at noon Saturday at the campus pool.

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