{"id":177448,"date":"2026-02-14T03:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177448\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T03:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T03:52:22","slug":"womens-water-polo-falls-just-short-to-no-3-usc-in-the-opening-round-of-the-barbara-kalbus-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/177448\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Water Polo Falls Just Short to No. 3 USC In The Opening Round Of The Barbara Kalbus Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"

IRVINE, Calif. \u2013 Down by four with just over five minutes left, No. 7 Long Beach State pushed a three-goal run to close the gap after a bar-in by Brooklyn Plomp<\/a> with 1:44 left but ultimately fell just short to No. 3 USC in the opening round of the Barbara Kalbus Invitational, 13-11.<\/p>\n

Spaniards Elisa Portillo<\/a> and Daniela Quinzada<\/a> both added a hat trick, while Polina Synytsia<\/a> recorded six saves.<\/p>\n

USC (10-1) got on the board first, but Long Beach State (7-6) answered right away with a goal from Zelma Koka<\/a>. Trading goals once again, the Trojans found a late score to take a 3-2 lead after the first period.<\/p>\n

Two quick goals by USC in the second extended the lead to 5-2. The Beach fought back with goals by Portillo and Hailey Multz<\/a> to cut the margin and trailed 5-4 at halftime.<\/p>\n

In an exciting game, both teams continued to trade goals, but USC put together a three-goal run to open its largest margin of the game, 11-6, early in the fourth period.<\/p>\n

LBSU never stopped fighting, and with 5:52 left after Emily Ausmus scored to give USC a 12-8 lead, the Beach pushed a three-goal run. After a bar-in by Brooklyn Plomp<\/a>, LBSU cut the lead to 12-11 with 1:44 remaining. With an opportunity to tie, the Beach saw the play go the other way after an offensive foul, and USC capitalized to seal the win, 13-11, in a close game from the first whistle.<\/p>\n

The Beach will now face No. 12 Fresno State in the second game of the Barbara Kalbus Invitational at 1:30 p.m. at the Anteater Aquatics Complex, with live stats provided through TheFOSH.net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRVINE, Calif. \u2013 Down by four with just over five minutes left, No. 7 Long Beach State pushed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-177448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}