Michigan
Southern Cal
U-M Loses Twice, Places Eighth at Stanford Invitational
2/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Water Polo
Site: Palo Alto, Calif. (Avery Aquatics Center)
Event: Stanford Invitational
Scores: #2 Southern Cal 16, #7 Michigan 3; #16 Arizona State 13, #7 Michigan 7
Records: U-M (6-4)
Next U-M Event: Thursday, Feb. 23 -- at Cal Lutheran (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), 4 p.m. PST
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- The University of Michigan women's water polo team finished eighth with an 0-4 record at the Stanford Invitational after losses to second-ranked Southern Cal and 16th-ranked Arizona State on Sunday (Feb. 12) at the Avery Aquatics Center. USC used eight first-period goals to defeat the Wolverines 16-3, and Arizona State pulled away from Michigan in the second half on the way to a 13-7 win over the Maize and Blue.
In the morning game, the USC Trojans scored eight in a row in the first quarter to begin the game and added three more to start the second to go up 11-0. Michigan cut the lead to 11-1 as Kaitlin Prijatel (North Tustin, Calif./Foothill) netted U-M's first goal of the game with 3:49 left in the second. After another USC goal, Prijatel scored again to make it 12-2 with two minutes remaining in the half.
The Trojans reeled off four more goals before Michelle Keeley (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) scored with 20 seconds remaining in the game as the Wolverines lost by a 16-3 final. Carrie Frost (Saline, Mich./Saline) highlighted Michigan's defense with a career-high three steals.
In the seventh-place game, Michigan fell behind 1-0 34 seconds in, but Carly Strub (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) quickly tied it up 1-1. Arizona State scored twice in a 1:20 span starting in the fifth minute of the first to make it 3-1. After Shana Welch's (Larksville, Pa./Wyoming West Valley) four-meter attempt was blocked, the Sun Devils coverted on a four-meter attempt of their own to push the score to 4-1. Sharayah Hernandez (Pico Rivera, Calif./El Rancho) cut the ASU lead to 4-2 with 1:27 remaining in the first.
The teams traded goals to move the score to 5-3, with the Wolverines' goal coming from Wesley Ellison (Portola Valley, Calif./Palo Alto). Following ASU's sixth and seventh goals of the game, Megan Hausmann (San Diego, Calif./Bishop's) kept Michigan in it with a goal to reduce the deficit to 7-4. Sally Stone (San Diego, Calif./Bishop's) came up big, stopping a Sun Devil four-meter attempt to allow Michigan to enter the second half down by three.
Four minutes into the second half, Welch scored the first goal of the half to move the score to 7-5, but ASU got two goals in the final 2:30 of the third to pull away. ASU scored 1:30 into the final frame to make it 10-5 before Frost scored the first of her two fourth-period markers to push the score to 10-6. Keeley had a chance on a four-meter penalty with 1:40 to go but was denied, and ASU went right back down and capitalized on a four-meter attempt to go up 12-6. Frost scored her second with 57 ticks left for the final margin.
The Wolverines take a week off and then fly back west for a bout with California Lutheran on Thursday, Feb. 23, in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
GAME SUMMARIES
| Game 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| Michigan | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Southern Cal | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 16 |
Scoring
Michigan Goals: Kaitlin Prijatel 2, Michelle Keeley. Southern Cal Goals: Moriah Van Norman 4, Michelle Stein 3, Bianca Simonetti 2, Kami Craig 2, Lauren Wenger, Veronika Bartunkova, Julie Spataru, Alison Riddle, Brittany Hayes. Ejections: U-M 5, USC 7.
| Game 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F |
| Michigan | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Arizona State | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 13 |
Scoring
Michigan Goals: Carrie Frost 2, Welsey Ellison, Carly Strub, Shana Welch, Megan Hausmann, Sharayah Hernandez. Arizona State Goals: Ashley Bower, Raelyn Ritchie, Addison Doud 2, Kimberlee Stevens 2, Katie Hedley 2, Amanda Stillwell 2, Kim Buck, Elaine Bentley, Heather Rempfer. Ejections: U-M 11, ASU 8.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Matt Anderson
On today's game against USC ... "USC is an odds-on favorite to advance to the national championship. Stanford and UCLA are the other two teams right with USC, and we played two of the three this weekend. They both showed us what we need to do in order to compete for a national championship. Our goal now is to continue to work, so when we come out again in a couple of weeks for the Santa Barbara Tournament we play better games because we learned from this weekend. We are a young team that had some very good bursts this weekend and then had some very young bursts this weekend. We will be fine, though. I saw some very good things out of these girls this weekend. If we can work off of those things, then that is what will help us the rest of the season."
On what went well today ... "Mary Chatigny had a good day and Carrie Frost put in a couple of goals in the fourth quarter. Sharayah Hernandez had a very good all-around game. Wesley Ellison also had a good game. We have some younger players that I feel overall played well. Now it's a matter of learning how to play better together as a team and learning how to become consistent."
Contact: Matt Baumer (734) 763-4423
