Kathryn Nelson below takes a hard hit and penalty that resulted in a penalty shot by the Gauchos.
UCSB jumped out to a 5-1 first-period lead and held off UC Davis 9-5in a Big West women’s water polo game at Campus Pool on Sunday.
Nine different players scored for the Gauchos, who are 2-0 in Big West play and 19-8 overall. UC Davis falls to 0-2, 16-9.
On what would be their last regular season home game, the Gauchos wasted no time in starting off strong. Senior, Claire Buchanan notched the first goal of the game just over two minutes into the game. She totaled four goals over the weekend.
UCSB keeper Ruth Milne makes one of her 11 saves.
The Gauchos then took a 2-0 lead off a penalty shot from Christie Clark and a 3-0 lead off a ten meter shot from Kacey Creek which just barely cleared the had of Aggies’ goalkeeper Riane Woods.
With just under two minutes in the first period remaining, UCSB earned a 6-on-5 opportunity and took advantage of it as Michelle Beaudreau passed cross-pool to a wide-open Shelby Haroldson for the goal. The goal was too much for UCD coach, Jamey Wright and they took a timeout.
The timeout must have helped as Jessica Dunn recorded the first goal for the Aggies on a man-up goal with 1:19 remaining in the period.
The Gauchos used the full final minute of the quarter and recorded a goal of their own, as Molly Hafferkamp recorded her second goal of the weekend.
In the second period, UCD would make an impressive comeback in large part due to a switch to press defense.
This helped the Aggies hold UCSB scoreless for the majority of the second period. They also recorded two goals in the period to pull within two of UCSB, 5-3.
Yet, the Gauchos would answer quickly as Kathryn Nelson recorded a goal with just 26 seconds remaining before halftime. The Gauchos took the 6-3 lead to halftime.
Both teams would score a goal in the third period as UCSB answered quickly, not allowing the Aggies to diminish their two-goal-deficit. The Gaucho goal was from Katie Zakula, who gave a misdirection fake pass to her left and tricked the goalkeeper with a shot in the upper right hand corner of the goal.
UCSB goalkeeper, Ruth Milne had a strong outing in the third period as she notched multiple saves in the cage for the Gauchos. Overall, she recorded 11 total saves, just one shy of what she had against Pacific yesterday.
UCD led off the fourth period with a goal from Rachelle Smith, once again pulling her team to within two of the lead, 6-4, but the Gauchos answered quickly for the third straight time. This time, however, it was Rachel Nelson with the goal.
UCSB would proceed to take as much time off the scoreboard as possible.
UCD removed their goalkeeper with the game winding to a close. A strategy that should have delivered more scores but backfired as Bryce Winton scored a goal with the wide-open net.
