Last weekend, the No. 3 UCLA women’s water polo team competed in and won a record eight-overtime match against No. 4 California. This Saturday, the Bruins were not as fortunate, as they lost at No. 5 Hawai’i (9-6, 1-2 MPSF) in six overtimes, 9-8.
In only their second MPSF game of the season, the Bruins (12-5, 1-1) looked to build off their dramatic win over Cal, which was recorded as the longest contest in the history of NCAA women’s water polo. They came up short, however, as the Rainbow Wahine’s Monika Eggens scored the game-ending goal in the fourth sudden-death overtime period.
The Bruins were led by junior defender Kelly Easterday, who had a career-high four goals in the match.
In addition, sophomore utility KK Clark contributed a pair of goals, while junior defender Megan Burmeister and freshman center Leslee Kaczmarek tallied one goal each.
Despite holding a 4-3 lead at halftime, the Bruins were outscored in the third quarter and with both teams adding two goals apiece in the fourth quarter, the game was sent into two three-minute overtime sessions.
Neither team was able to capitalize during the six minutes of overtime, however, sending the game into consecutive three-minute sudden-death overtime sessions.
Eggens’ goal with 2:05 remaining in the sixth overtime finally ended the match, giving the Bruins their first conference loss of the season.
The Rainbow Wahine were led by Carmen Eggens, who tallied five goals in the game. Hawai’i’s Monika Eggens, Amarens Genee, Saara Majuri and Leonie Van Der Molen also contributed one goal each.
UCLA sophomore goalkeeper Caitlin Dement registered 14 saves in goal compared to Hawai’i’s Serena Bredin, who had 16 stops.
The Bruins play again on Thursday at No. 13 UC Irvine, in a non-conference match which begins at 7 p.m.
Compiled by Amy Le, Bruin Sports contributor.