MONTEREY – The No. 17 UC Santa Barbara women’s water polo (1-0) team held on for a 10-9 victory at Cal State Monterey Bay (1-0) to open the 2012 campaign on Thursday afternoon. Kacey Creek and Nancy Ruano each scored four goals to lead the Gauchos offensively.
After going down a goal in the first minute, UCSB rebounded with consecutive goals from Creek and Claryann Ologsson-Loo to take its first lead of the game with 2:22 to go in the first quarter. The Otters knotted the score during a six-on-five with just three seconds to go in the period.
CSUMB carried its momentum into the second quarter and went on a 3-1 run before UCSB coach Cathy Neushul called a timeout. The break didn’t slow the Otters though as they poured one more in with 51 seconds to go in the half to push their lead to 6-3.
Halftime proved productive for the Gauchos as they opened the second half with six unanswered goals. Creek began the onslaught less than a minute into the third quarter and Ruano quickly followed with consecutive goals to tie the game at 6-6 with 4:54 on the clock. UCSB then broke the tie with Creek’s third of the game.
The duo was not done as they each posted one more in the last 1:32 of the quarter to push the Gauchos’ lead to 9-6 heading into the final quarter.
The Otters continued to nip at the Gauchos’ heels during the last eight minutes, but the Gauchos did not relinquish the lead. Shelby Haroldson scored what would prove to be the eventual gamewinner with 5:36 to go, securing the Gauchos’ 10-9 victory.
Ruth Milne recorded five saves in goal for the Gauchos, she is now just three blocks away from tying the UCSB career saves record, which was set by Yvonne Conard at 595.
UCSB 10, CSU MONTEREY BAY 9
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final UCSB 2 1 6 1 10 CSUMB 2 4 1 2 9 UC Santa Barbara Goals: Kacey Creek 4, Nancy Ruano 4, Claryann Ologsson-Loo, Shelby Haroldson.
UC Santa Barbara Saves: Ruth Milne 5.CSUMB Goals: Nikki Smart 5, Katie Sowul, Alex Tyrell, Christina Vournas, Kylie Fields.
CSUMB Saves: Paige Robinson 4, Amanda Jennings 6
