TEMPE ? The Arizona State University women's water polo team fell to San Jose State, 9-8, in the fifth place game in the final day of action at the 2015 MPSF Women’s Water Polo Championship at Mona Plummer Aquatic Center.
The Sun Devils had a chance to tie the game up on the final possession of the game, but Spartans’ goalkeeper Katelynn Thompson came up with the biggest save of the game as time ran out to secure fifth place for San Jose State.
Izabella Chiappini scored three times for ASU in the loss, while Bianca Seyfert scored three of her own as well as the assist on the winning goal for the SJSU.
ASU took an early lead with a little under three minutes elapsed in the match when Izabella Chiappini took advantage of a 6-on-5 situation and slung the ball past San Jose State goalkeeper Katelynn Thompson.
The Spartans responded on their next possession, getting a woman-advantage goal of their own when Timi Molar snuck the ball past E.B. Keeve to knot the game at one.
Both teams traded goals for the rest of the quarter and at the end of one, the score was tied at two goals apiece.
San Jose State started the second quarter with urgency, and leapt to a three-goal lead after three unanswered scores.
But in the last four minutes of the half, the Devils came charging back with two powerplay goals, one from Lena Mihailovic and the other from Daisy Carter to get the deficit down to just one heading into the second half.
ASU tied it up with 2 minutes elapsed in the third quarter as Chiappini rose up out of the water and skipped it past Thompson for her third goal of the match.
The Devils regained the lead just a minute later when Kayla Casas stole the ball on the defensive end, took it all the way into the frontcourt and scored for the 6-5 match advantage.
But it didn’t take long for San Jose State to come right back and tie the ball game up at six. Cara Robinson took a pass from Clara Espar Llaqueton on the offensive and shot it top right shelf for the goal.
Both teams would trade goals through the fourth quarter up until there was 2:48 left when Donia Momen scored for the Spartans, giving them the 9-8 lead.
ASU had one final possession in the game, and with 25 seconds left, coach Todd Clapper called a timeout to draw up the final play. With the seconds waning down, Claudia Abad tried to skipped the ball into the goal from 5 meters, but Thompson stopped it to secure the win for the Spartans and ending the Devils' season.?
