Women of Troy faced fierce weekend games


By
 in ,

The top-ranked women’s water polo team traveled to Irvine to compete in the UC Irvine Invitational on Saturday and Sunday. USC faced three top-25 opponents on their way to the championship game against No. 2 UCLA Sunday night.

In Sunday’s semifinal game, the Women of Troy (10-0) faced No. 4 Stanford. USC took a quick first quarter lead of 2-1 but would fail to score again until the final period. Stanford led by 2 goals at halftime and extended the lead to 3 goals with one period of play left.

In an action-packed fourth quarter, the game was tied 6-6 with under a minute remaining when junior driver Stephania Haralabidis scored the winning goal on a lob with six seconds remaining.

The leading scorer for the Women of Troy was the other Haralabidis, junior attacker Ioanna, who had 2  goals in the game.

The action started Saturday with the Trojans rematch against No. 25 CSU Northridge. The Trojans dominated the Matadors 13-3 before challenging the host team No. 9 UC Irvine in a battle for the books.

In the opening match of the tournament, the Matadors were the first to put a goal on the board with an early lead. The Women of Troy would then go on to score the next 10 goals shutting out the Matadors for the remainder of the first half.

Ioanna Haralabidis put away 3 goals from the perimeter and junior center Brigitta Games tallied two more from the two-meter position. The momentum continued in the second quarter when junior Avery Peterson backhanded her second goal of the match.

The goaltending duties during the game were split between sophomore Victoria Chamorro and senior Alegra Hueso. Chamorro tallied five saves while Hueso recorded one in the match.

In the second half, USC continued to build on its lead drawing it out to a 13-2 lead in the fourth quarter. CSUN scored on their final powerplay opportunity to end the game, and the Trojans advanced to the next round with a 13-3 victory.

Facing host UCI in the next game, the Trojans were stuck in a back-and-forth battle that included seven ties. Sophomore driver Brianna Daboub scored 2 goals in the game with one coming in the first quarter to give them a 4-3 advantage at the end of the period. At the end of the first half the game was tied 5-5.

Stephania Haralabidis was the scoring force for USC in the game though netting a total of 7 goals. She scored the go-ahead goal with just under five minutes remaining in the game, and the Trojans held on to advance to the semifinals with an 11-10 victory.

Freshman goalie Amanda Longan stood tall in goal garnering 10 saves on the day.

USC will continue its season with a road trip to the desert to face ASU on March 5.