It was not exactly the way the women’s water polo team envisioned its season coming to a close.
Having already suffered a stinging loss to their arch-rivals earlier in the season, the Bruins traveled across town on Saturday to face USC in the final tune-up before the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament.
The No. 1 Women of Troy (19-1, 5-0 MPSF) once again proved to be too formidable for the No. 4 Bruins (17-7, 4-3), as they rolled to a 14-5 victory on the strength of a nine-goal scoring run that blew the game wide open. With the game knotted at two after one quarter, USC closed the half on a 7-0 run, then tallied the first two goals of the second half to build a commanding 11-2 lead. Seniors Kami Craig and Alexandra Kiss each recorded three goals for USC, while the Bruins got one goal apiece from five different players.
UCLA did get a rare tally from goalkeeper Caitlin Dement, who caught her USC counterpart too far out of the cage and scored from the other side of the pool for the game’s final goal.
With their regular season now concluded, the Bruins will await next weekend’s results to determine where they will be seeded in the MPSF Tournament, which will be played at Spieker Aquatics Center in two weeks.
Compiled by Ryan Eshoff, Bruin Sports senior staff.