April 4, 2009

BERKELEY - The No. 5 California women's water polo earned its third conference victory with a 11-9 decision over No. 8 Arizona State on Saturday evening at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The Bears improve to 28-5 overall and 3-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation while the Sun Devils fall to 13-11 and 0-6 in the MPSF. Junior utility Camille Hewko led all scorers with four goals while freshman driver Emily Csikos notched a hat trick.

"The most important thing is to pick up the conference win and move on from it," California head coach Richard Corso said. "We have some things that we need to work on and I thought we weren't as strong on defense at certain times as I would like. But the most important thing is the win."

The Bears opened the first quarter with a 2-0 scoring run in the first two minutes of play. Junior utility Camille Hewko earned a five-meter penalty shot for the Bears just 45 seconds into the game. Junior driver Meghan Corse took the shot and converted off a skip to the left corner. Redshirt junior utility Julie Oreglia scored Cal's second goal with redshirt senior two-meter defender Paige Lorenz assisting. Down 2-0, Arizona State's junior attacker Bonnie Miles scored back-to-back goals. The first came with 5:01 to play from seven meters while the other was with 2:29 remaining off the assist from sophomore Sam Schubert.

The second stanza began in similar fashion to the first - with Hewko captaining the first offensive. Hewko gave the Bears the six-on-five and lobbed in a goal off a pass from Oreglia. Arizona State's Kelly Phelps tied the game at the 5:52 mark. Cal junior Erin Scully returned the favor two minutes later with a cross-goal shot to give the lead back to the Bears, 4-3. A shot from ASU's Kelly Phelps barred down to knot the game at four all. With 1:04 left in the half, freshman driver Emily Csikos scored off a shot so powerful it became lodged in the cage, returning Cal to a one-goal lead, 5-4. With 13 seconds standing between the teams and halftime, Hewko scored with a backhand shot to send the Bears into the break with a 6-4 advantage.

The Sun Devils opened the second half with a goal from Nikki Unbehaun, who evaded her defenders in set. Roughly a minute later, Csikos scored her second goal of the game off a skip shot, giving Cal a 7-5 lead. Hewko followed up with another score with 1:41 to play in the third quarter. The Sun Devils earned their first penalty shot of the game, which Addison McGrath scored with a skip shot to bring ASU to with two, 8-6. The Sun Devils scored the final goal of the third quarter with a man-advantage score from Jennifer Campo with an assist from Unbehaun.

It took the Bears just 16 seconds to score in the fourth quarter with a goal from Lorenz with an assist from junior Stephanie Schnugg making the score 9-7. Two minutes into the final quarter, McGrath converted ASU's second penalty, edging the Sun Devils back to a one goal margin. Arizona State tied the game for the fourth time with a goal from Mariam Salloum. Csikos gave Cal the lead for good, 10-9, with a powerful skip shot with 4:35 to play in regulation. Hewko distanced the Bears with her fourth goal of the game, bringing the final tally to 11-9.

Cal will next host Stanford on Saturday, April 11 in the annual Big Splash at 7 p.m. at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

Score by period	1	2	3	4	F
No. 8 ASU	2	2	3	2	9
No. 5 Cal 	2	4	2	3	11

Arizona State goals: Addison McGrath 2, Bonnie Miles 2, Kelly Phelps 2, Jennifer Campo 1, Mariam Salloum 1, Kelly Unbehaun 1
California goals: Camille Hewko 4, Emily Csikos 3, Meghan Corso 1, Paige Lorenz 1, Julie Oreglia 1, Erin Scully 1

Arizona State saves: Kaitlyn Morris 6
California saves: Stephanie Peckham 11