ASU Water Polo: Sun Devils go undefeated in second straight tournament

(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)

The Arizona State women’s water polo team won all four games this weekend at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. The ninth ranked Sun Devils increase their win streak to seven games after the loss to USC.

On Saturday, ASU played two games with the first one against No.22 Cal Baptist. Sophomore attacker Lena Mihailovic scored five goals as the Sun Devils cruised to a 12-2 victory.

Later in the day Arizona State had their biggest matchup of the weekend against No. 5 Michigan. The Sun Devils have struggled this year against teams that rank in the top 10 with notable losses to UC Davis and USC. However, ASU performed very well as they shut down the isolation offense of Michigan to grab the victory 8-5

“I think it was really good,” Coach Todd Clapper said. “They came out and really worked together as a team. It was a good team effort, we came out firing on all cylinders. It was nice against a team that was pressing us.”

With that win, the players felt confident to continue the momentum into the weekend

I think with Michigan we knew we needed a big win there,” senior defender Katie Sverchek said. “They are number five in the nation, and to even get consideration for the NCAAs in the future we needed to win. I think we all knew that and it was time to step up.”

On the next day, Sverchek shined as she scored a career high five goals in one game against Marist College. The morning sessions against the Red Foxes was a walk in the park for Sverchek and the Sun Devils as they went on to win 11-2

“I knew they were going to drop off me,” Svercheck said. “Because in our starting lineup I may not be the best shooter but I knew in the back of my mind they thought that so I kind of just took it to them.”

ASU closed out the final game of the weekend with another key victory over No. 13 Pacific. Freshman Maud Koopan scored two goals as ASU went on to win 5-2

Now that ASU is on a long win streak, momentum will be on their side in the next couple of weeks. ASU will have to travel to the Bay Area next week and play No. 3 Stanford. After that they return to play No. 6 California.

“For us it’s just one game at a time,” Clapper said. “Our progression has just been week by week. They come to work and they are training hard and that is all we can expect. I feel like offensively we are starting to hit a bit of a stride, so we just have to keep that going and I think we are going to compete with anybody in the country.”

 

If you want to reach Ryan, you can email him at recurry@asu.edu or follow him on twitter with @ryancurry25

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