BERKELEY, Calif. \u2013 The third-seeded UCLA women’s water polo team punched its ticket into the MPSF Championship Tournament semifinal round with a 20-10 win against No. 6 seed Indiana Friday at Spieker Aquatics Complex. UCLA advances to face second-seeded Stanford, which beat No. 7 seed San Jose State 16-3 in the first quarterfinal, Saturday at 2:30 p.m. PT.<\/p>\n
Four players logged hat tricks for the Bruins (19-3), who were paced by Bia Mantellato’s<\/a> four goals. Taylor Smith<\/a>, Elektra Urbatsch<\/a> and Jojo Walters<\/a> logged three each for UCLA. Bruin goalkeepers Lauren Steele<\/a> (eight saves) and Joey Niz<\/a> (five) combined to knock down 13 Hoosier shots. IU (15-10) was led by Louisa Downes and Grace Klingler, who scored three times each. Jasmine Higgs had nine saves for the Hoosiers.<\/p>\n UCLA’s Anna Pearson<\/a> got scoring underway with 5:48 left in the opening quarter. Mantellato next capitalized on a six-on-five opportunity before Downes put IU on the scoreboard. Walters scored on a power play just past the midway point and Pearson followed with her second. Downes and Smith traded six-on-five conversions in the final three minutes and the Bruins led 5-2 after the first.<\/p>\n Urbatsch’s initial goal came by way of a penalty shot 37 seconds into the next frame. The Hoosiers responded with back-to-back power-play scores before UCLA got another five-meter chance. This time it was Mantellato who found the back of the net. Katherine O’Dea<\/a> of the Bruins notched an even-strength goal next. Both teams scored in the final minute, with Urbatsch capping the quarter she started with a goal. UCLA led 9-5 after two.<\/p>\n After Klingler struck at 7:23 of the third, the Bruins ran off five straight goals to take a 14-6 lead. Urbatsch completed her first three-goal game of the season to start the spree. Tali Stryker<\/a>, Smith, Mantellato and Walters followed over the next 2:18. Downes’ six-on-five goal with 30 seconds remaining made UCLA’s lead 14-7 with eight minutes left.<\/p>\n Smith’s third goal came one minute into the fourth. Bruins Jenna Human<\/a>, Dania Innis<\/a> and Ana Pieper<\/a> added their names to the scorebook, Walters finished out her first hat trick of the year and Mantellato converted a last-second seven-on-six opportunity. IU scored on two six-on-five chances and a penalty shot.<\/p>\n No. 3 seed UCLA vs. No. 6 seed Indiana
\n6×5: Indiana \u2013 6\/9, UCLA \u2013 5\/10 Indiana Goals: Louisa Downes 3, Grace Klingler 3, Olivia Harris 2, Gwyneth Le 1, Savannah Batchelor 1 UCLA Goals: Bia Mantellato<\/a> 4, Taylor Smith<\/a> 3, Elektra Urbatsch<\/a> 3, Jojo Walters<\/a> 3, Dania Innis<\/a> 1, Jenna Human<\/a> 1, Katherine O’Dea<\/a> 1, Ana Pieper<\/a> 1, Tali Stryker<\/a> 1
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tSCOREBOARD
\n\t\t\t1
\n\t\t\t2
\n\t\t\t3
\n\t\t\t4
\n\t\t\tFINAL
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tNo. 6 Indiana
\n\t\t\t2
\n\t\t\t3
\n\t\t\t2
\n\t\t\t3
\n\t\t\t10
\n\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\tNo. 3 UCLA
\n\t\t\t5
\n\t\t\t4
\n\t\t\t5
\n\t\t\t6
\n\t\t\t20
\n\t\t
\n\t
<\/p>\n
\nPenalties: Indiana \u2013 2\/2, UCLA \u2013 2\/4<\/p>\n
\nIndiana Saves: Jasmine Higgs 9<\/p>\n
\nUCLA Saves: Lauren Steele<\/a> 8, Joey Niz<\/a> 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERKELEY, Calif. \u2013 The third-seeded UCLA women’s water polo team punched its ticket into the MPSF Championship Tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-386085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}