UC San Diego defeated CSUN 18-11 Friday in the opening round of the Big West Women’s Water Polo Championship.
The fourth-seeded Tritons advance to Saturday’s semifinal round and will face Hawaii, the top seed, at noon for a spot in the conference title game. The win moved UC San Diego to 18-11 on the season.
The fifth-seeded Matadors’ season comes to a close with an overall record of 18-15.
UC Davis is hosting the championship at Schaal Aquatics Center on campus.
UCSD scored seven goals in each of the first two quarters to take a 14-5 lead into halftime. CSUN won the second half 6-4, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit.
Caroline Christl, Abigail Schechter and Kendall Thomas each registered a hat trick for the Tritons. Lexi Stahl was called upon to make nine saves in net. She also assisted on a goal and made two steals, upping her season total to a team-high 28.
Katie Ward, who played the final eight minutes of the game in the cage, made two stops.
UCSD scored the first three goals of the game, by Thomas, Courtney Okumura and Christl. CSUN netted its first goal of the contest on a Dorottya Telek strike mid-way through the first quarter, but the Tritons out-scored the Matadors 4-1 over the remainder of the period.
The second quarter saw UCSD score five-consecutive goals to take a 10-goal lead, 12-2. Three of the goals came on successful five-meter penalty shots by Lucia Doak, Christl and Schechter.
Cascade Stensland’s two goals came in the first 2:05 of the third period, with the second coming on a power play that widened the Triton lead to 16-5. The 11-goal lead, which UCSD opened up twice in the second half, was their largest margin of the afternoon.
Trailing 17-6 after a Schechter goal with 3:58 left in the third quarter, CSUN was able to find the back of the net four consecutive times between 3:09 of the third and 6:24 of the fourth.
That brought the Matadors back within range at 17-10, but it was too little, too late.