RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Pacific women's water polo team snagged one of the biggest upsets in the early 2023 college water polo season with a win over #6 UC Irvine, 12-11, in the first Saturday contest in the Lancer Joust at California Baptist. Freshman
Dora Alaksza scored her fourth goal of the contest with 11 seconds remaining to give the #19 Tigers the win in the back-and-forth contest between two nationally ranked teams.
"This is an absolutely huge win for our program and a great way to start the season," said head coach James Graham. "UCI is consistently one of the top programs in the country and to be able to come out with a win shows the progress that we are making. I was impressed by our ability to stay composed as the lead changed back and forth."
The Anteaters, who are the defending Big West Conference champions, jumped out to a 4-0 lead before freshman
Dora Alaksza tallied two late first-quarter goals to pull within two, 4-2. The Tigers roared into the second quarter, scoring four unanswered tallies from four different players in the eight minutes to take a 6-4 edge into intermission.
The Anteaters came back in the third quarter with four straight goals to retake the lead, 8-6, before sophomore
Hila Futorian scored her second goal of the contest to stop the Irvine run and pull the Tigers within one, 8-7, heading into the fourth quarter.
The Anteaters opened the scoring in the final quarter by tallying twice sandwiched around a goal by Pacific sophomore
Szamira Koppány for a 10-8 edge with less than four minutes to play. Pacific responded with three straight goals in less than two minutes to retake the lead, 11-10. Freshman Alicia Petrov scored the first in the run followed by two from Koppány to move into the lead.
UC Irvine tied the game with 56 seconds to play, setting the stage for Alaksza's game-winning goal with 11 seconds on the clock.
Koppány and
Dora Alaksza led the team with four goals each. Three of Koppány's goals came in the fourth quarter, and Alaksza had the game winner. Futorian had two tallies while Petrov and sophomore
Ilyana Zlobinsky each had one.
"I am most proud of the defensive effort that was required to win a game like this," Graham said shortly after the match.
The Tigers had seven steals, compared to three for the Anteaters. Senior goalkeeper
Clara Vulpisi and freshman
Noemi Alaksza each had two of the steals. Vulpisi had nine saves in goal.
The win extends the streak for Pacific over UC Irvine to four straight, although the two programs have not met since 2019. The Anteaters have a 22-9 edge in the all-time series, winning 13 straight between 2006 and 20017, but now the Tigers have won the last four meetings.
Pacific wraps up the Lancer Joust with a 3:30 p.m. later Saturday contest against Biola.
