Sun Devil water polo will battle a familiar opponent in No. 6 Cal in Bakersfield this weekend at the MPSF Championships.
ASU concluded its regular season with a 16-6 loss to UCLA and a 9-3 victory to San Diego State University. After the weekend slate of games, the Sun Devils solidified an 18-6 regular season record.
The Sun Devils have had over a week to prepare for the MPSF Championships. ASU’s first match will be against the Cal. The last time ASU battled Cal, the game ended in four overtime periods and a last-second goal from senior attacker Daisy Carter. The last 11 games have been decided by three goals or less, and seven had been decided by one goal.
“We are really focusing on the first game which is going to be Cal,” said senior defender Katie Sverchek. “We obviously had a really rough matchup with them last time, it was double overtime sudden death. … So we are just watching film on them and going to key in on their most important players and really shut those players down.”
Carter understands that the Golden Bears have offensive power, and this time around, defense is the key.
“Defense is most important, that’s all we are doing all week pretty much,” Carter said. “We’ve watched previous games playing Cal, our defense was good but there’s lots of room for improvement.”
The Golden bears have a 29-16 overall record in the MPSF tournament. Cal is led by sophomore offensive star Carla Carrega, who has 53 goals on the season. The Bears also receive large offensive contributions from junior center Emily Loughlin. Loughlin has accumulated 43 goals this season, and been on a tear lately, scoring 25 goals in the last 11 games. Cal has four other players who have 20 or more goals this season. In the cage for the Bears are junior Madeline Trabucco and freshman Madison Tagg, who account for 163 of the team's saves.
The Sun Devils echoed defense as the theme for this matchup against the bears.
“I think defense is obviously one of the biggest things we are looking into,” said Sverchek. “We used to have problems with the offense at the begging of the season, but now that’s not our issue. … We can score from the outside, we can score from center, so we're not really worried about that, I think defense is going to be the biggest thing we are going to need to key in on.”
The seniors Carter and Sverchek will lead the Sun Devils offensively as they have combined for 52 goals this season. ASU has three other players that have contributed 23 or more goals on the season. Sophomore goalie Mia Rycraw continues to play at a high level, and has 214 saves with a 66 save percentage.
The Sun Devils want to keep their momentum for this tournament and NCAA Championships.
“We’re looking to keep our spark and prove we deserve that win, so we are working on our defense hopefully that will put us on top,” Carter said.
Reach the reporter at chaz.frazier@asu.edu or follow @chaz_frazier on Twitter.
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