Sun Devils split weekend games in Bay Area

 by Steven Falkenhagen
 published on Tuesday, March 4, 2008

The ASU water polo team executed its game plan this past weekend in the Bay Area.

The Sun Devils, which went into the matchups ranked No. 10 in the National Collegiate Women's poll, relied on aggressiveness and endurance to split their two-game set.

On Saturday, ASU beat No. 8 San Jose State, 7-5, but dropped a 12-6 battle to No. 2 Stanford.

ASU coach Todd Clapper said he wanted his team's defense to "step up" in case the offense had a sluggish quarter.

The Sun Devils (11-7, 1-2) did just that in Saturday's game, shutting out the Spartans' offense in the first quarter, keeping the game at a 0-0 tie at the end of one quarter.

ASU made some adjustments in its offensive attack in the second quarter and scored five goals against the SJSU defense — four coming off the hand of junior all-around Addison McGrath.

McGrath's scores propelled her to the top of ASU's all-time scoring list, eclipsing the previous ASU career goal record of 134 held by Katie Hedley.

The Spartans (8-7, 1-2) countered with three goals in the second quarter, but Sun Devils' lead of two goals would hold up for the remainder of the game, as each team scored two goals in the second half.

Senior goalie Caylinn Wallace played a crucial role in ASU's first conference victory of the season. She had nine saves and helped keep the Spartans scoreless in seven power-play situations. Playing defense against the advantage was another area Clapper focused on in practice last week.

Clapper had named junior utility player Tonya Torres, senior two-meter player Beth Harberts, and junior two-meter player Juliet Moss as the main offensive threats the Sun Devils would target against SJSU. ASU, for the most part, was successful in limiting those players.

Torres and Moss each had only one goal, while Harberts was held scoreless.

But freshman utility player Adrianna Vogt stepped up for the Spartans, scoring a hat trick, which Clapper will remember if the teams face off again at the conference championships in April.

Following the win in San Jose, the Sun Devils took a short trip to Palo Alto to play Stanford.

Clapper noted that Stanford (11-0, 3-0) had a "quick" team and relied on its speed to outscore the Sun Devils in every quarter except the fourth.

Stanford had a comfortable 10-3 lead heading into the period, but was outscored by ASU 3-2 in the final frame.

McGrath and freshman attacker Kristen Wagner had two goals each while sophomore attacker Bonnie Miles and sophomore center Kari Walsh also each contributed one goal respectively for ASU.

Wallace finished with nine saves while freshman goalie Kaitlyn Morris came in relief and also had a save.

Reach the reporter at: steven.falkenhagen@asu.edu.