 |  |
Unbearable: No. 3 UCLA Bests No. 11 Michigan 13-6 in 2009 NCAA Championship First Round Action
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Anne Belden (Sr., Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) recorded a hat-trick, while Katie Rulon (Sr., Point Loma, Calif./University of San Diego HS), Tanya Gandy (Sr., San Diego, Calif./Rancho Bernardo) and KK Clark (Fr., Menlo Park, Calif./Sacred Heart Prep) added pairs of goals as No. 3 University of California-Los Angeles opened the 2009 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Women's Championship with a 13-6 win over No. 11 ranked and Collegiate Water Polo Association champion University of Michigan at Maryland's Eppley Natatorium.
The win advances the Bruins (23-6) to face No. 2-ranked Stanford University (25-3), a 21-5 winner over unranked Marist College (18-14) in the opening game of the championship tournament, at 5:45 p.m. on Saturday, May 9 with a bid to the National Championship game on the line. Michigan (33-9) falls into the consolation bracket and will face the Red Foxes at 12:30 on Saturday with a berth in the fifth place game at stake.
UCLA needed 99 seconds to light-up the scoreboard as Rulon pounded home an exclusion goal at the 6:21 mark to go in front 1-0. The lead ballooned to 4-0 as Belden finished on an exclusion chance at 3:48, Gandy split the defense for a marker at the 2:29 mark and Rulon ripped a shot into the twine with 56 seconds on the clock.
Michigan broke up the shutout with 16 ticks left in the first period when Carrie Frost (Sr., Saline, Mich./Saline) lasered a shot past Bruins' netminder Brittany Fullen (Sr., San Clemente, Calif./Corona Del Mar) to make it 4-1, but UCLA responded before the horn with a tally by Clark courtesy a desperation heave with one second on the clock to make it 5-1 after eight minutes of play.
Gandy pushed the lead to five goals midway through the second period as she drained a shot from outside at the 4:03 mark for a 6-1 lead. The Wolverines slashed the lead back to four less than a minute later as Lauren Orth (So., Poway, Calif./Poway) fired a line-drive penalty shot into the upper right 90 of the cage following a call on UCLA's Clark with 3:13 left in the first half.
The teams exchanged goals in the waning minutes to the end of the period as Belden pumped in her second tally of the day at 2:35 on a man-up chance before Cara Reitz (So., Miami, Fla./Gulliver) pulled Michigan back to within four at 7-3 with a score at the 24 seconds mark.
Michigan and UCLA exchanged blows in the third period as Kelly Easterday (So., Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara) and Leah Robertson (Jr., Newport Beach, Calif./Newport Harbor) found the back of the cage for their teams at 3:24 and 14 seconds, respectively, to put the game at 8-4. However, UCLA repeated its feat from the first period as Priscilla Orozco (So., Commerce, Calif./Montebello) launched a shot which went through three sets of Michigan arms, including those of goalie Brittany May (Sr., Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara) as the horn blared to make it 9-4 through three periods of play.
Leading by five with only eight minutes between them and a berth in the national semifinals, the Bruins did enough to survive and advance to the next round.
Orth put her team back within four with another penalty shot at 7:17, Clark answered with an even-strength marker at 3:56 and Michigan's Alison Mantel (So., Miami, Fla./Gulliver) countered with an exclusion score at 3:18 to set the lead at 10-6.
However, the Bruins offense came alive in the closing minutes as Belden completed a hat-trick with an exclusion goal at 2:54, Hannah Sebenaler (Fr., Coronado, Calif./Coronado) tacked on an advantage goal with 56 seconds left and Nicole Barker (Fr., Huntington Beach, Calif./Huntington Beach) put the final score into the cage with one second left in the contest for the Bruins' third and final buzzer-beater of the game.
"It was a solid game," noted Michigan head coach Matt Anderson. "That was a hard-played, aggressive fight. They got three goals as the buzzer was sounding, at the end of the first, at the end of the second, and at the end of the fourth. But, we did a lot of positives out there. We allowed them to do a lot of things that we knew they were going to do. When it was 9-6, we had a breakaway, one-on-nobody, that we missed. At 10-6, we have a 6-on-5 that we missed. Unfortunately, the last three periods we definitely were able to do what we wanted, but we allowed them to get out in the first period. That's why they are going for their fifth national championship."
Overall, the game was a statistical dead-heat as the Wolverines outshot UCLA 30-25, including a 16-10 advantage in the middle periods, but the Bruins were able to record five field blocks to the Wolverines one. Further, Michigan hit seven bars to UCLA's two to allow the Bruins to pull away in the first and fourth periods.
"When you're an elite program like UCLA, those things go your way. They proved that they're the better team today, but I have no complaints losing to a team like that with the effort we had."
In cage, Fullen finished with 10 saves to earn the win, while May notched five saves.
Live coverage of the entire NCAA Tournament is available through CBS College Sports.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| No. 11 University of Michigan | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| No. 3 University of California-Los Angeles | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 13 |
UCLA Goals: Anne Belden (3); KK Clark (2); Katie Rulon (2); Tanya Gandy (2); Kelly Easterday; Priscilla Orozco; Nicole Barker; Hannah Sebenaler
Michigan Goals: Lauren Orth (2); Alison Mantel; Carrie Frost; Leah Robertson; Cara Reitz
Shots: UCLA - 25 ; Michigan - 32
Saves: UCLA - Brittany Fullen (10); Michigan - Brittany May (5)
Ejections: UCLA - 9 ; Michigan - 10
Sprints: UCLA - 4 (Priscilla Orozco - 1st & 2nd, Anne Belden - 3rd & 4th) ; Michigan - None
Leah Robertson & Brittany May prepare for a shot by UCLA's Katie Rulon
