HONOLULU - The 10th-ranked UC San Diego women's water polo team could not recover from a disastrous second quarter and fell to No. 7 UC Irvine by a score of 10-7, Friday at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Center on the campus of Hawai'i.
UCSD is now 19-8 in 2016. UCI improves to 13-9 on the year.
Senior attacker Laurel Kistler and redshirt junior two-meter defender Alexi Wieseler led the Tritons with three goals each. Senior goalie Courtney Miller compiled six saves. The Anteaters were led by Mary Brooks and Gabby Pierandozzi's three scores. UCI goalie Annika Nelson amassed five saves.
Both teams traded three goals each, in a you-score-I-score fashion, in the first quarter. The Anteaters got all of their scores from one player, Gabby Pierandozzi, in the period, while the UCSD got two goals from Kistler and one from sophomore utility Kayla Fedler.
UCI broke the game open in the second frame, shutting out the Tritons and putting away three. UCSD trailed 6-3 at halftime.
The Tritons started the second half with two goals from Wieseler to cut the margin to one. The Anteaters' Allie Loomis buried one with 56 seconds remaining as UCSD trailed by two, 7-5, going into the final quarter.
The Tritons were outscored 3-2 in the fourth period as UCI grabbed the win. Wieseler and Kistler got one goal each in the quarter to complete their respective hat tricks.
UCSD closes out its three-day trip to Honolulu against No. 4 Hawai'i on Saturday, March 26 at 3 p.m.
BOX SCORE
UCSD 3 0 2 2 - 7
UCI 3 3 1 3 - 10
Goals
UCSD: Laurel Kistler 3, Alexis Wieseler 3, Kayla Fedler 1
UCI: Mary Brooks 3, Gabby Pierandozzi 3, Allie Loomis 2, Destene Albers 1, Emily Carlson 1
Saves
UCSD: Courtney Miller 6
UCI: Annika Nelson 5
#TritonsRising
