IRVINE, Calif. — The No. 8-ranked University of Michigan water polo team lost to No. 1 Stanford University (13-5 L) and No. 5 Arizona State University (7-6 L, OT) on the second day of the Barbara Kalbus Invitational hosted by the University of California-Irvine.
The Wolverines nearly duplicated the magic of last year’s tournament at UC-Irvine when they upset No. 3 University of California for just the second win in school history over a top-five team. This time around they took a lead in the first overtime period over No. 5 Arizona State but gave up two goals the second three-minute overtime, including the game-winner with two seconds to go.
The two games extended a streak for the Wolverines of playing six consecutive games against Top-10 teams. Two of those have been overtime losses. The run is guaranteed to reach seven games as the Wolverines will face either No. 6 University of Hawaii or No. 7 UC-Irvine in the tournament’s Seventh Place game on Sunday, February 26.
In the Wolverines’ opener of the day, top-ranked Stanford came out of the gate strong with five first-quarter goals to take control of the game early. Stanford led 2-0 before U-M sophomore Kim Johnson battled the goalie for the ball and won to cut the lead in half.
After Johnson’s goal Stanford went on an 8-0 run over the next 14:08 minutes, holding Michigan scoreless the rest of the half. Sophomore Julia Sellers ended the run at the 6:59 mark in the third period when she beat the defense to a rebound and scored. She added a six-on-five goal later in the period.
Michigan outscored Stanford, 2-1, in the fourth quarter, but a nine-goal lead was insurmountable. Senior Allison Skaggs and Johnson were able to add goals in the fourth quarter to bring the final score to 13-5.
Junior Caroline Anderson tallied assists on three of Michigan’s five goals to surpass 150 career assists. She is just the second U-M player to do so and is now six assists shy of the school record held by Alison Mantel. Freshman goalkeeper Heidi Ritner made eight saves.
Two seconds meant a lot in deciding the outcome of Michigan’s game against No. 5 Arizona State. Sellers gave U-M a lead in the first three-minute overtime period with just two seconds left on the clock. The Wolverines just needed to play three more minutes of outstanding defense after allowing only one goal in the previous 25:46 minutes.
Despite three saves in overtime by Ritner, Arizona State was able to get one past her with 2:09 left in the second overtime period to tie the score at 6-6. Then senior center Alkistis Benekou netted the game-winner for ASU with two seconds remaining.
The recent history between these two teams has been nothing less than thrilling. The Sun Devils got this one with a late game-winner, whereas Skaggs scored with four seconds left in regulation in the first game of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament at the University of Southern California last year to beat ASU.
Arizona State jumped out on Michigan early with the first two goals during the first quarter. Johnson had the Wolverines’ only goal of the first half as the Sun Devils led 3-1 halfway through.
Another Sun Devils goal made it 4-1 at the 6:46 mark in the third period. Then Michigan started to make its move. Johnson picked up her second of the game just over two minutes later. Another two minutes went by before Anderson cut it to 4-3 with 2:38 left in the third.
Skaggs tied the game at 4-4, beating a triple team to even the score. ASU took the lead with 5:15 remaining, but Anderson was able to get her second of the outing with 3:18 to go, eventually forcing overtime.
Ritner ended the game with 10 saves, her seventh game this season with double-digit saves. Johnson had a big game for the Wolverines with two goals, one assist, three steals and two earned kickouts. Anderson also had two goals and one assist.
Skaggs moved into the top five on Michigan’s career drawn exclusions list, passing Erin Brown with 130 in her four seasons.
Release courtesy University of Michigan Athletics Communications
