TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
LA JOLLA, Calif. – Loyola Marymount women's water polo split their two games on the opening day of UCSD's Triton Invitational to advance to the winner's pool for Sunday's game. The #13 Lions (3-3) opened the tournament with a one-goal win over #16 Long Beach State before pairing up against the nation's top team, USC.
Game 1 - #13 LMU 10, #16 LBSU 9
The Lions jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first 2 minutes and 17 seconds.
Hana Vilanova opened the scoring, then
Marialena Seletopoulou followed on the ensuing LMU possession. Once Long Beach got one back,
Mollie Williams brought the differential back to two, before The Beach answered with two consecutive to tie the score at 3-all. LMU closed out the first quarter with back-to-back goals, taking a 5-3 lead after one. Five different scorers accounted for first quarter goals for the Lions, with
Katie Hungerford and
Morgan Molloy adding the final two.
Williams and Vilanova were the lone two goal scorers in the second quarter, scoring at 6:47 and 5:06, respectively, to push LMU ahead 7-3 at halftime.
The Beach scored the first two goals of the third quarter before
Abbey Grosse made it an 8-5 game with 4:36 on the clock. After LBSU got one back, Williams scored her third of the day and Selepotoulou followed to increase LMU's lead to 10-6.
Long Beach State scored the final goal of the third quarter, and both of the fourth quarter goals, but LMU's lead was too much and the Lions advanced with a 10-9 win.
Game 2 - #1 USC 16, #13 LMU 5
USC scored the game's opening three goals before
Marialena Seletopoulou put LMU on the board with 2:37 to play. The Trojans added one more before the end of the quarter to make it a 4-1 game after one.
After USC opened the second quarter with four goals, Seletopoulou scored her second of the half to send the teams into intermission in an 8-2 game.
A five-goal third quarter extended the Trojan lead to 13-2.
Melyssa Moore capitalized on a USC exclusion to open the fourth quarter and scored the powerplay goal less than 30 seconds into the period. The two sides traded off scoring the six goals in the period with each side scoring three apiece.
Mollie Williams made it a 14-4 game with 3:20 to play and freshman
Isabella Barajas scored her first as a Lion with 2:47 remaining.
Up Next: Day 2 of Triton Invitational
The Lions advanced to the Triton Pool with the top eight teams in the field and will play at 8:30 a.m. against the loser of the No. 8 Michigan and No. 9 Arizona State game. The day will continue with either the seventh-place game at 1:50 p.m. or the fifth-place game at 3:10 p.m., pending the result.
