SANTA CLARA, Calif- It was a day of firsts for the Sonoma State water polo team this Friday afternoon at the Western Water Polo Association conference tournament hosted by Santa Clara, as the No. 5 Seawolves upset No. 4 UC San Diego, 9-5. It marks the first victory for Sonoma State over UC San Diego in program history and the first time the Seawolves will play in the WWPA semifinals. Sonoma will play the top seed, Loyola Marymount on Saturday afternoon.

After quickly falling behind 1-0 in the first period, the Seawolves posted two goals in within twenty seconds of each other. Sarah Watt netted her first goal of the day with 4:35 remaining to even the score at 1-1, and 18 seconds later, Sonoma again lit up the scoreboard as Holly Armijo fired one past Triton goalkeeper Markayla Quane to improve the Seawolves lead to 2-1. The Tritons Sydney Gstettenbauer evened the score with :39 left, 2-2.

The second quarter is where the Seawolves did most of their damage as they pulled away from UC San Diego by outscoring the Tritons 4-1 in the quarter. After UC San Diego went ahead 3-2, Sonoma rattled off four straight goals to close out half. The flurry commenced on a goal by Laurel Stricklin and ended when Watt posted her second goal of the game with :42 remaining in the first half.

Sonoma State continued their scoring in the third quarter, as Emily Pearce increased the Seawolves lead to 7-3. Over seven minutes would elapse without a single goal until UC San Diego notched their fourth goal in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Sonoma would close out the final period with goals by Stricklin and Samantha Mullins to secure their first ever victory against UC San Diego. Stricklin and Watt paced the Seawolves with two goals each. Lysa Lombard collected eight saves behind the net while the Broncos Quane gathered ten saves.


Match Statistics

Sonoma State – 2 4 1 2 – 9
UC San Diego – 2 1 1 1 – 5

SSU Scoring: Holly Armijo (1), Laurel Stricklin (2), Emily Pearce (1), Lauren Smith (1), Sarah Watt (2), Andrea Brookbank (1), Samantha Mullins (1)

SSU Goalie Saves: Lysa Lombard (8)