Bruins drench Trojans’ recent winning streak

  NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin UCLA head coach Adam
Krikorian celebrates with players after USC’s last-second
goal occurs, as time luckily expires. UCLA 9 USC
8

By Susana Zialcita
Daily Bruin Contributor

Time was on the side of the women’s water polo team when
they snapped the Trojan’s eight-game winning streak on Friday
with a 9-8 win.

Right after the last second elapsed, Trojan center Sofia Konoukh
fired an outside shot into the net. After whistling the shot a
goal, the referees revoked the point as it was scored after time
had passed.

“After the ball went in, I was just thinking overtime.
There was no panic, we just needed to do the same thing we were
doing all game,” Lopez added.

UCLA head coach Adam Krikorian was was dismayed by the goal, but
was relieved after realizing that the goal was not counted.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Krikorian
said.

“I liked our chances going into overtime. There was a
clear offensive foul that the referees didn’t call. Clock or
not, the win was justified, Krikorian added.”

The Bruins went into the last minute of the game leading
9-8.

The Trojans ran a strong offense with Konoukh as their main
threat, but Konoukh was shut down by sophomore attacker Thalia
Munroe.

In the last seconds of the game, Munroe blocked two of
Konoukh’s bullets.

“We’ve been practicing blocking a lot, but it was
more that my team wanted it more,” Munroe said.

“I just fed off of their energy and it filtered into the
last seconds of the game.”

Lopez led the Bruins in scoring with a hat-trick as well as the
game-winning goal. Kelly Heuchan and Amber Stachowski each scored
twice, and Robin Beauregard and Jenny Lamb Scored once.

Goalkeeper Jaime Hipp came off a hip injury to post five saves
for UCLA.

“I wasn’t nervous about my hip,” Hipp said.
“In a game like this, I put it aside. I’m not conscious
of things like that.”

On Saturday night, the Bruins crushed Hawai’i 17-5 at Duke
Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex in Honolulu.

Huechan scored three times for the Bruins and Natalie Golda,
Eleanor Murphy, Stachowski and Ashley Stachowski each scored
twice.

Also scoring were Beauregard, Leah Wilson, Kristyn Pulver, Lamb
and Mari Joyce.

“Now we’re preparing ourselves for the (conference)
tournament,” Amber Stachowski said. “The ‘SC game
really was a physical game, but we never lost our cool and it
psyched us up for the tournament.”

UCLA will finish their regular season Saturday, April 20 with a
game at Santa Barbara. They head to the Mountain Pacific Sports
Federation Tournament on the weekend of April 26-28.