No. 9 ASU water polo’s two matches on Sunday were to very contrasting stories.
The Sun Devils played No. 23 Marist Rout in the morning. Senior defender Katie Sverchek got going early, scoring the first two goals for the Sun Devils. She completed the hat trick with 49 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
“They ran a pretty big drop so we knew we weren’t going to get it into center as much,” she said. “Our coach had also told us that their goalie was really jumpy. … We knew a high-corner, just a pass to the high corner, was going to work.”
She continued to use this to her advantage, scoring a pair of goals in a 1:09 span the third quarter. She finished with five goals. She did not miss a single shot.
Redshirt sophomore goalie Mia Rycraw allowed just two goals and had 10 saves. She also had four steals, a career-high, according to Sun Devil Athletics.
In large part of the dominance of these two, the Sun Devils walked away with an 11-2 victory.
In the second game, ASU and No. 12 University of Pacific combined to score five goals in the first half. Neither scored in the third quarter; it took until a goal from senior attacker Daisy Carterwith 3:46 left in the game for ASU to increase its lead to 4-2 and get some insurance.
“We struggled a little bit early, but we were able to get some goals and it was nice to get that buffer,” said head coach Todd Clapper.
Sverchek attacked early and often against sophomore goalkeeper Alexis Hollinrake, taking this many shots. However, the majority hit off the crossbar or were blocked. Her skip shot proved ineffective.
“In the first game I had scored five, so I thought, ‘I’m on today,’ but obviously not,” she said.
ASU was struggling to get through Pacific’s heavy press on defense. Sverchek said the Tigersstayed inside on the center before quickly attacking an outside player.
“You would think you were going to be open but then you would go to shoot and there would be a person in your face,” Sverchek said.
ASU, holding a 3-2 lead late, finally was able to combat it. Carter said her team had noticed a Pacific trend after timeouts.
“We knew they were going to come out rushing us on that play because it was out of a timeout so we started differently and ended the same way,” she said.
Rycraw finished an impressive day.
Defense was great,” she said. “Without that defense, I think they easily could have tied with us or probably beat us.”
With attributions to the strong defense, Rycraw is confident in the offense. She thinks a low-scoring game is more likely to end in a positive result than a close, high-scoring battle.
“A low scoring game favors us,” she said. “When we start putting those goals away it really separates us.”
ASU won 5-3. Clapper called Pacific a “great team,” even with two of their key players injured.
“They’re going to be hard for everybody to handle once they get healthy,” he said. “They gave us quite a scare but I’m happy and proud of our players for stepping up.”
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