After what seemed like the makings for a successful weekend Saturday, the No. 1 UCLA women’s water polo team gave up their first loss to No. 2 Stanford at the UC Irvine Invitational Tournament Sunday night 8-4.
This loss comes after an early-morning win Sunday over No. 5 California and two victories on Saturday over Santa Clara and UC Irvine.
UCLA started Sunday off with a 7-3 victory over California. After a slow start, the first half ended with a score of 3-1 in favor of the Bruins. The second half maintained the competitive play, with the Bruins only scoring four goals to edge Cal out of the semifinals and move on to the finals against Stanford.
Top scorer was again Courtney Mathewson with three goals, supported by Jillian Kraus with two goals.
Saturday saw the Bruins blow out Santa Clara 17-6. Against Santa Clara, senior driver Kelly Rulon matched her own record of five goals scored in a game, a record shared by freshman Melissa Mordell. Other top scorers were Kraus and Brittany Rowe with three goals apiece. Goalkeeper Brittany Fullen had eight saves.
In the quarterfinals of the tournament, the Bruins defeated the hosts, UC Irvine 11-7. At halftime UCLA led the game 7-2. Their lead was only to increase as the game progressed, and the game resulted with the Bruins advancing to the tournament semifinals.
Mathewson led the Bruin offense by scoring three goals, followed by Gabrielle Domanic and Rowe, each with two goals.