Sports Editor
Despite going into halftime down by one point, the CSU Bakersfield water polo team lost on Friday to UCLA 10-3 in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament at the Hillman Aquatics Complex.
“I thought the first half was great, great intensity,” said CSUB head coach Jason Gall. “I thought we played with them goal for goal in the first half, and then it kind of got away a little bit at the end.”
The Roadrunners were in reaching distance the entire first half as they scored three goals coming from redshirt junior Nicola Barrett, sophomore Ashley Paz and junior Kristen Jensen.
Paz recorded her 50th goal of the season in the first half with 3:43 to go.
“There was so much more room for improvement,” said Jensen. “I think we’re converting more but every team is going to miss. Every team is not going to put a shot away.”
The Bruins turned it on in the second half scoring six goals and preventing the Roadrunners from scoring the rest of the way.
UCLA freshman Lizette Roseboom, sophomore Devin Grab and junior Ashley Zwirner all led the Bruins with two goals each.
Also, the Roadrunners turned the ball over six times in the third quarter, which the Bruins turned those mistakes into three goals of their own.
“Coming into this game we were a lot more prepared,” said Barrett. “We had a lot of fun. We had nothing to lose when we were going into it.”
Barrett had a penalty shot in the second period to tie the game at two but was saved by UCLA senior goalkeeper Alex Mussleman.
This was CSUB’s ninth straight loss, their last win being against CSU Monterey Bay on March 19 11-5.
“Every single year it seems to be getting better. For the last three years that we’ve been in this conference, we’ve only been in it for four years, its been getting better. We used to only be able to hold on to these teams for the first three minutes of the game, and then it was the first six minutes and then it was the first quarter and now we’re holding on to them until halftime.”
CSUB junior goalkeeper Courtney Wahlstrom had 14 saves in the game, which is just above her average of 12.36 saves per game.
