Barbara Kalbus Invitational up Next for Water Polo

IRVINE, Calif. – No. 9 Sun Devil Water Polo (6-6) will travel to UCI this weekend to compete in the Barbara Kalbus Invitational for the first time since the 2020 season on Feb 25-27. The Sun Devils are set to open up play at No. 10 UC Davis (9-5) on Friday at 5:15 pm MST and will play two games on Saturday and one on Sunday. No games will be streamed this weekend. 

Based on last week's CWPA Varsity polls, the Sun Devils will be competing in Group A with No. 1 UCLA, No. 1 Pomona Pitzer (DIII), and No. 10  UC Davis. All tournament information including rosters, game schedules, and fan information is available here.

ASU faced UC Davis earlier this year at the Stanford Invitational and defeated them 15-10 behind freshman attacker Vanda Baksa's four goal game. In that win, the Sun Devil defense recorded 15 steals to the Aggies' six. The last three games between the two teams have been all Sun Devils, with the offense averaging 16 goals in those three straight wins over the aggies. 

Since the first meeting, UC Davis has gone 4-2 over the stretch with wins over LMU, UCSD, and MPSF opponents Indiana and San Jose State to improve to 9-5 on the season. 

The Sun Devils come off of the ASU Invitational where they defeated Cal State East Bay 19-10 and Salem 22-5– which was the most goals scored since posting 23 against CBU last season, and the fourth most goals scored at home in program history. 

The final three games of the weekend will be determined by the outcomes of game one for ASU. If they beat the Aggies, they would face the winner of the UCLA-Pomona Pitzer game, and a loss would have them facing the loser between the two. 

Once matchups are confirmed, livestat links will be tweeted out on @SunDevilWP.