Long Beach State University Athletics
LBSU Nearly Upsets USC, Fall 12-10 in OT
3/27/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
Beach Nearly Pulls Off the Upset LONG BEACH, CA-- The No. 5-ranked Long Beach State 49ers (12-5, 3-3 MPSF) nearly pulled off the upset, but No. 1-ranked USC (15-0, 6-0 MPSF) scored two overtime goals to defeat The Beach 12-10 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation double overtime slugfest on Saturday afternoon. It was the first time this season that the Women of Troy were taken to overtime. LBSU three times led in the second half only to see USC come back each time. Moriah Van Norman tallied a game-high four goals, including the game-winner with 2:07 left in the first overtime to give USC the victory. LBSU though kept pace with three a piece from Drue Wawrzynski, Cassie Azevedo and Roberta Stewart. Both team's goalies had their share of saves, with Kelly Graff racking up 13 for USC and 49er goalie Bri Hawkins tallying 14 saves. LBSU opened up the match up 3-1, on a Stewart penalty shot with 11 seconds left in the first period and led 4-2 on Wawrzynski's second tally of the day, with 3:24 left in the second, but USC scored four unanswered to lead 6-4 with 4:41 left in the third period on Lauren Wenger's second and final goal of the day. The 49ers answered with two straight tallies in the third from Azevedo, one at 3:16 off a lob shot and then another with 2:15 left off of the fingertips of Graff to tie it at 6-6. Both teams traded goals over the final two minutes of the third to keep it tied at 7-7. In the final period of regulation, Wawrzynski's final goal of the afternoon gave the 49ers a 9-8 lead with 4:54 left, but USC would answer with two of their own, the last from Van Norman with 1:35 left to lead 10-9. Stewart's final goal came at 1:12 to tie it at 10-10 and send the match into overtime. In the overtime frames, Van Norman's netter, followed by Eszter Gyordi's score at 2:13 in the second overtime put the game away.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Copyrighted by Long Beach State and www.longbeachstate.com. All rights reserved worldwide.
No portion of this site may be reproduced or duplicated without the express written Please contact the webmaster should you find an error or out of date link.
