UC San Diego had a big second half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 9-0 early deficit as the Tritons fell to Hawaii, 17-10, Saturday in the Big West Championship semifinals.
Fourth-seeded and 15th-ranked UC San Diego saw its season come to an end at Schaal Aquatics Center at UC Davis, which is hosting the Women’s Water Polo tournament.
No. 1 seed Hawaii will play No. 3 seed Long Beach State (which defeated UC Irvine in the other seminfinal) at noon Sunday, with an automatic berth at stake to the NCAA Championship.
UCSD ends the season with a 18-12 record. It was third consecutive year that the Tritons advanced to the conference semifinals. Hawaii improved to 21-3.
Coach Brad Kreutzkamp called himself “unbelievably proud of how hard we came back … these girls never ever quit and I’m super proud of them.”
The opening half was all Hawaii as the Rainbow Wahine scored the first nine goals, four on power plays.
Kendall Thomas was able to get UC San Diego on the board at the 3:59 mark of the second quarter.
With just two seconds left until halftime, Lot Stertefeld found the net to put Hawaii back up by nine, 12-3. She struck again to begin the third quarter on a power play, giving the Rainbow Wahine a 10-goal advantage for the first time in the game.
Yet the Tritons found a groove and scored the game’s next four goals, all in the third frame.
The first was a power play strike by Courtney Okumura at 6:43. Team scoring leader Caroline Christl then took over, scoring three consecutive goals. The first was a five-meter penalty shot at 5:53. She followed with two more goals, to make it 13-7 Hawaii with 4:18 left in the third.
The Rainbow Wahine answered, scoring three straight to open up the fourth quarter, making it 16-7 with 5:28 left in regulation. Two of the goals were on power plays.
UCSD scored three of the game’s final four goals as Okumura, Christl and Lauren Bellavia all added to the Tritons’ total, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Christl finished with four goals, a game-high. Okumura also had a pair of assists to go with her hat trick, giving her five points on the day. Lexi Stahl made 17 saves, along with two assists and a steal.