SANTA CLARA, Calif. - The opening game of the Golden Coast Conference Tournament was a thrilling affair to say the least, as No. 3-seed Pacific was able to escape an upset from No. 6-seed Azusa Pacific with a goal in sudden death to win 14-13. While the Cougars are knocked out of championship contention, they will have a chance to play in either the fifth-place game or seventh-place game tomorrow. If No. 1-seed LMU defeated No. 8-seed Concordia, then the Cougars will play for fifth-place at noon tomorrow, but if Concordia is able to pull off an upset, then Azusa Pacific would play for seventh at 10:00 am.
Maria Boix Pascual finished with four goals in the game, while
Maritza Ochoa and
Montana White each added a pair of their own goals.
Skylar Ford and
Alexandra Akritidou each contributed two assists. In goal,
Alex Airitam finished with six saves, while
Daniela Herrero Miralles had three.
How It Happened: The two teams kept pace with one another through the first period, with both sides putting three goals away over the first eight minutes. With just under five minutes to go before halftime and the score knotted at 4-4, Pascual put the Cougars on top with her second goal of the day, and less than a minute later, she made it a hat trick to give Azusa Pacific the two goal advantage at 6-4 with 3:57 on the clock. After the Cougar defense was able to keep the Tigers scoreless for the remainder of the second period, the No. 6-seed held the lead at the break.
Pacific flipped the momentum of the game to open the third, as the Tigers scored three unanswered over the first five minutes of action to jump in front at 7-6. While Pascual's fourth goal tied the game back up with 1:47 on the third period clock, Pacific scored back-to-back goals to push the lead to 9-7. A late goal from Ochoa in the third pulled the Cougars within a goal entering the fourth.
With just over five and a half minutes to go, the Cougars faced an 11-9 deficit. About a minute later, an exclusion on Pacific allowed
Rachel Ahumada to score on the power play for the Cougars, and it started a 3-0 run that lasted about two and a half minutes and allowed Azusa Pacific to regain the lead at 12-11 with 3:02 to play. With just under two minutes to play, Pacific scored to draw even at 12-12, and neither team could find the back of the cage over the remainder of the fourth.
The defenses continued to stifle the other side into overtime, as neither team scored in the first three minute overtime period, and it wasn't until just 16 seconds left in the second overtime period in which a team scored, as Pacific took a 13-12 lead. With its semifinal hopes on the line, Azusa Pacific was momentarily saved from an unlikely source, as goalie
Alex Airitam launched a shot at the buzzer that landed in the back of the net to keep the Cougars alive.
With neither team on top at the end of the second overtime period, the game went to sudden death, where the Tigers struck first in just under 50 seconds to secure their spot in the semifinals.
"Today's game was a very hard fought and complete game for us," said Azusa Pacific head coach Priscilla Gomez, "We were able to come together as a team and compete at a high level from beginning to end. I am very proud of the kind of Cougar water polo we were able to play out there."
Up Next: Despite the disappointment of the loss, the Cougars will look to close out the season strong tomorrow. Regardless of tomorrow's outcome, Coach Gomez and the Cougars have made some history in her first two seasons as the head coach, as Azusa Pacific will finish with back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in program history.
