In ASU water polo’s first tournament of the year, it managed to win its first two games. However, ASU was sunk by its Pac-12 rivals No. 1 USC in the semifinal and No. 5 UC Davis in the consolation match.
Although they did not win the tournament, head coach Todd Clapper was able to gather a lot of information about his team, as well as its competition.
Against USC, the Sun Devils were able to hold the Trojan offense to only six goals. Yet, they were only able to scratch across three goals on offense.
“USC’s defense covered everything better, and made better decisions than us by not letting our players get open,” Clapper said. “However, our offense got some great looks but passed the ball instead of shooting.”
Holding top-tier teams to only six goals usually gives a team a pretty good chance to win. Redshirt senior defender Ao Gao discussed what was working for them on defense.
“It was a very physical game, but once our team got used to their speed we started to gain more control of the game," she said.
In the consolation match, ASU played against UC Davis. ASU kept it close throughout by matching their scoring until the fourth quarter. UC Davis just barely scratched out a victory (10-9), in which Clapper and Gao said fatigue played a role.
“We were not very good at adjusting from one defense to another against UC Davis,” Clapper said. “With four games in a weekend and three of them being pretty demanding, our team was also pretty worn out.”
On the offensive side, ASU found some success by beating Cal State East Bay 16-5 and UC Santa Barbara 7-6, and by scoring nine against UC Davis. Against USC, however, the Sun Devils only mustered three goals.
Sophomore Lena Mihailovic, who scored a goal against both USC and UC Davis, she talked about what was working for them on offense.
“Our attack was very efficient against UC Davis, and we were able to put away our opportunities but we made simple mistakes that cost us the game,” Mihailovic said. "This tournament showed us the little things like communication that we need to work on for the rest of the season.”
In practice Thursday, the team was working on conditioning, as well as passes under pressure. Meanwhile, centers Rosie Huck and Abbey Kerth were focusing on receiving and controlling passes. The two had a rope tied between them to give the feeling of pressure from the defender.
ASU will next play in the UCI tournament at UC Irvine on Feb. 27 and 28.
Reach the reporter at Graham.Paul@asu.edu or follow @GrahamASUpress on Twitter.
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