Women’s water polo advances to NCAA semifinals after win over Wagner

INDIANAPOLIS — UCLA’s final weekend of the season started with a game that ended like so many others have for the No. 1 team in the country.

The Bruins (23-1, 6-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) had scored 17 or more goals or allowed two or less goals in eight other matches this year before they put together a 17-2 win over the Wagner Seahawks in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The win advances them into the first semifinal tomorrow, where they will play No. 4 California (16-9, 2-4 MPSF) at 12 p.m. PST.

[Related: Water polo completes comeback over Cal to advance to MPSF final]

Right from the start, the Bruins went to their centers to get the scoring going against the Seahawks.

Redshirt senior center Alexa Tielmann netted her first of three goals just over a minute in. After redshirt senior attacker Kodi Hill scoring on the following possession, UCLA centers scored off of three straight power play chances.

Tielmann scored again after Wagner’s first exclusion and junior center Alexis Angermund scored twice on back-to-back possessions.

The flow on offense helped the ball get into the center, which worked out well, according to Tielmann. Her and Angermund accounted for four of the Bruins’ six points in the first quarter.

To open the second frame, freshman attacker Maddie Musselman scored her 60th goal of the season, her first goal of an eventual hat trick. With a minute left until halftime, Tielmann also scored her third goal for her own hat trick to push the lead to 8-0 at the break.

[Related: Dream Big: Olympian Maddie Musselman three games from UCLA water polo history]

In the third quarter, Wagner’s junior utility Kimberly Watson, this year’s MAAC MVP, broke the Seahawks’ scoreless streak of 21 minutes and 52 seconds with her 101st goal of the season.

“I thought that (our communication) was a good in the first and second quarters, in the third quarter we kind of let up a little bit,” Angermund said. “I think if we communicated a little better those goals would have been stopped.”

Coach Brandon Brooks had been substituting his go-to starting line consistently throughout the game, with the exception of sophomore goalie Carlee Kapana. Freshman goalie Hannah Storum came in near the end of the third quarter.

A total of seven Bruins were able to find the net, including senior utility Mackenzie Barr and senior defender Aubrey Mohanan, who were the last two Bruins to score before the final buzzer.

Despite the 17 goals, UCLA found itself on the short end of many offensive fouls. Brooks said the Bruins have no plans of letting up as the tournament progresses, however.

“I think our aggressiveness is important to how we play and sometimes that results in fouls,” Brooks said. “I think that its important that whoever we play tomorrow that we play aggressively.”

In the three games the Bruins have played against the Bears this year, two have been decided by one goal.

UCLA had a three-goal lead in their latest matchup before Cal came back and was up by one heading into the fourth quarter.