No. 19 CSUN Faces Stiff Tests at Barbara Kalbus Invitational

Friday, February 23

Irvine, CA

11:15 a.m.

California State University at Northridge

#2 California

Photo by: Paul Trafecanty

No. 19 CSUN Faces Stiff Tests at Barbara Kalbus Invitational

2/22/2018 2:00:00 PM | Women's Water Polo

NORTHRIDGE, Calif.---No. 19 CSUN Water Polo will take on Top 20 teams this weekend at UC Irvine's Barbara Kalbus Invitational. The Matadors open up the invite Friday against No. 2 California at 11:15 a.m. Scheduled to play twice on Saturday, CSUN will face either No. 7 UC Irvine or No. 11 Loyola Marymount to kick off day two of the event. The Matadors wrap up their stay at the tournament on Sunday with one more contest. Live stats will be available for the Matadors' match up with California. The top nine teams in the country will compete at the event and all 16 teams in the event are ranked in the Top 20.

The Matadors earned a pair of wins at Azusa Pacific last Saturday, defeating the host Cougars 7-4 and the University of Toronto 13-3. CSUN turned the match around with the Cougars with its defense, holding APU to one goal after halftime. Against Toronto, the Matadors led from start-to-finish as seven players hit the back of the net.

Senior Madeleine Sanchez collected three goals to go with seven steals and three assists in the two victories. Freshman Elyse Koe posted her first career multiple-scoring game, netting four goals with two steals in the win over Toronto. Lindsey Garcia, Paula Abellan Garcia, Madasonne Butler and Daci Hughes all had mult-scoring matches. In front of the net, senior Niki Van Vugt racked up 12 saves against the Cougars while freshman Emma Pfister had eight versus Toronto.

On the season, Katelyn Fairchild leads the Matadors with 19 goals and is tied with Shannon Hovanesian for the team lead in steals (20). Hovanesian is also the team leader in assists with 15 to go with 11 goals. Sanchez has collected 15 goals this season in just six matches along with 12 steals and 10 assists. Currently fifth all time on CSUN's career scoring list, Sanchez has 190 career goals and is one away from tying Whitney Delgado (2009-11) for fourth place.

Van Vugt heads into the weekend with 75 saves to go with a 7.54 goals-against average. Fifth all time in school history with 467 saves, Van Vugt could move into fourth place, currently occupied by Dana Harvey (2011-12), with three more saves.

The Matadors are looking for their first ever victory over California on Friday. The Bears have won 10 all-time meetings including three victories in neutral-site matches. Last season, Cal earned a 16-2 victory over CSUN at home.

A Closer Look at California
The second-ranked Bears are 10-1 this season and have notched wins over Big West teams UC Davis (three wins), UC Irvine and Hawai'i. The team's only loss this season came to defending national champion Stanford on the road.

Senior Dora Antal leads the squad with 27 goals while sophomore Emma Wright has 24 goals and senior Carla Carrega has 23. Junior goalkeeper Madison Tagg has spent the most time in net (248 minutes) as she has racked up 45 saves on the season.