TEMPE, Ariz. – The 2022 women's water polo season is underway as the ninth-ranked LMU Lions earned an opening day split, topping Ottawa after losing to Arizona State.
Game 1: #9 Arizona State 16, #17 LMU 8
Arizona State opened the game with all three goals of the first quarter, and the first four goals overall before
Ruth Arino Ruiz put LMU on the board with an even-strength goal at 4:55 of the second quarter. After ASU extended it 5-1,
Marialena Seletopoulou answered with a goal a minute later. The Sun Devils took a 6-2 lead into halftime.
Seletopoulou and Ruiz both scored in the third quarter to bring the score to 7-3, then 9-4.
The Lions scored four goals in the fourth quarter by four different players.
Alena Sanchez,
Tara DeBrabander,
Isabella Barajas, and
Alexandra Akritidou all scored their first goals of the season.
Game 2: #17 LMU 15, Ottawa 6
LMU never trailed in the second game of the day, jumping out to a big 6-0 lead in the first quarter and extending it to 7-0 by halftime.
Marialena Seletopoulou scored on LMU's opening possession and was followed a minute player by
Kelsey Snelgar.
Mollie Williams extended the lead at 3-0. Snelgar scored the next two with goals coming at 2:35 and 0:43 on the clock in the first.
Yanah Gerber closed out the quarter with a goal to beat the buzzer.
Tara DeBrabander scored the lone goal of the second quarter, finding the back of the cage with 1:56 to play.
LMU extended the lead in the third as
Risse Sanchez and
Taylor Enright each scored their first goals of the season. Ottawa scored with 21 seconds left in the period, but
Madison Davis closed out her time in goal with a buzzer beater goal.
Davis allowed just the one goal in her 24 minutes in the cage and logged eight saves.
Talia Herbermann took over for the final period of the game.
The fourth quarter featured Enright scoring two more goals, Sanchez adding a second, and
Megan Slater and
Iris Gallagher scoring their first career goals as Lions.
The Lions will match up against both teams again on Sunday.
