UH water polo knocks off No. 4 Cal
Hawaii’s first two meetings with No. 4 California this season accounted for half of the Rainbow Wahine water polo team’s loss total.
In the third matchup, No. 5 UH’s lowest goal total of 2019 proved enough to knock off the Golden Bears 6-5 on Friday at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.
Six different players scored for the UH (14-4) with freshman Maxine Schaap lobbing in the game-winner with 1:19 left in the game. The Wahine held Cal (13-4) to its lowest output of the season to breakthrough with its first win over a team ahead of them in the Collegiate Water Polo Association poll.
“I think that’s a testament to the team,” UH coach Maureen Cole said of the team’s scoring distribution. “Eveyone’s contributing and I think we played really great defense this game and that’s what we’ve been focusing on going into the last month, really locking down on defense.”
Over at DKAC, No. 5 @WahineWP celebrates a 6-5 win over No. 4 Cal. UH freshman Maxine Schaap with the game-winner with 1:19 left. @hawaiiwworld pic.twitter.com/GAD9YYa7Fp
— Jason Kaneshiro (@jasonkaneshiro) March 30, 2019
UH’s four losses this season have come against No. 1 USC, No. 3 UCLA and Cal. The previous two meetings in California were decided by a total of three goals (12-10 on Feb. 23 and 10-9 on March 10).
“I think it builds our confidence,” Cole said. “I think we’ve got a chip on our shoulder always being fifth or sixth or seventh. So to knock off one of top four teams, it’ll feel good for the night and then we’ll refocus going into conference next week.”
The Wahine entered the third matchup with the Bears missing center Elyse Lemay-Lavoie, who was tied for second on the team with 35 goals and is playing for Canada in the FINA Women’s Water Polo World League Intercontinental Cup in Perth, Australia.
UH took a 3-2 lead into halftime on goals by junior Samantha Malouff, freshman Emma van Rossum and freshman Bernadette Doyle. Senior Irene Gonzalez scored her team-high 45th goal in the third quarter, but pushed ahead to a 5-4 lead with 6:04 left in the fourth. Senior Carla Abellan scored the equalizer with 2:50 remaining and Schaap netted the game winner 91 seconds later.
“I think were just more patient,” Cole said. “I think we were rushing things earlier in the game and a lot of those goals came right at the end of the clock. I think if we’re a little bit patient things will develop and we got better at that throughout the game.”
The Wahine sit atop the Big West at 2-0 in league play and head to Southern California next week for matches at UC Irvine (13-8, 0-1) on April 5 and Long Beach State (13-10, 1-0) on April 7.
UH freshman Maxine Schaap on her go-ahead goal in tonight’s @WahineWP win over Cal. @hawaiiwworld pic.twitter.com/pjdFTima1b
— Jason Kaneshiro (@jasonkaneshiro) March 30, 2019
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