No. 21 CSUN Finishes 12th at Triton Invite

LA JOLLA, Calif.---No. 21 CSUN Water Polo completed the Triton Invitational on Sunday, falling twice to Top 25 teams to finish 12th at the tournament. The Matadors dropped a 10-4 decision to No. 16 Long Beach State in a non-conference affair before suffering an 8-7 overtime setback to No. 25 Marist in the afternoon match.

Game One Recap

Four different Matadors scored in a losing effort to the 49ers including freshman Kylee Jansen who scored for a seventh-straight match to open her career. Junior Tori Wilson collected her third goal of the tournament in the defeat along with junior Katia Andon-Mateos notching her first goal of the season as well.

Orsi Hertzka put the 49ers on the board early with a goal in the first minute before CSUN quickly tied things up on Jennalyn Barthels' second goal of the tournament. The Matadors would then take their first and only lead of the contest off a strike from Wilson, which made the score 2-1 to end the first quarter.

In the second, the 49ers started to pull away in part to a strong showing from Hertzka. The freshman attacker from Hungary tied the score with a nice goal under the four-minute mark and added another to give Long Beach State the lead again. CSUN then tied the score again at 3-3 apiece after a strike from Jansen. That would be the last time things would be tied, however, as another Hertzka goal made it a 4-3 game. The 49ers added another late goal to lead by two at halftime.

The second half saw continued success for the 49ers. Long Beach State scored three unanswered goals to make it 8-3, two of which came from Eleni Mimdi and Hertzka as they would account for eight of their team's 10 goals. Andon-Mateos scored a power-play goal to make it 8-4 but it would be the last goal for the Matadors in the contest.

Hertzka netted her sixth of the day in the final stanza while the Matadors were blanked over the final eight minutes of the match.

LBSU - 1-4-3-2 = 10
CSUN - 2-1-1-0 = 4

LBSU Scorers: Hertzka 6, Mimdi 2, Honka, Russell
CSUN Scorers: Jansen, Andon-Mateos, Barthels, Wilson

LBSU Saves: N/A
CSUN Saves: Pfister 12

Game Two Recap

The Matadors would rally from three goals down in the afternoon match but Marist prevailed in overtime as the Red Foxes scored the lone goal in extra time.

After a scoreless first three minutes, Susan Cantoni broke the seal to give Marist an early 1-0 lead. The Red Foxes would add two more goals over the next three minutes to lead by three before Wilson put the Matadors on the scoreboard with less than a minute to play. Myriam Lizotte though ended the period with a late goal to give Marist a 4-1 lead.

CSUN would respond with a solid second quarter, only allowing one goal. Barthels and Andon-Mateos supplied the Matador offense in the period to pull CSUN within 5-3 heading into the break.

In the second half, Jansen scored for the eighth-straight match early on, and Wilson later brought the Matadors within one on a goal via a power play. Sara Dempsey would hit the equalizer at the 3:19 mark after the Matadors earned the one-player advantage. Marist though pulled back in front on a tally Lizotte to take a slim lead into the fourth.

The fourth period would be a defensive struggle as only one shot hit the back of the net. Fortunately for CSUN, the Matadors collected that one goal as Andon-Mateos squared the match at 7-7 with 6:37 on the clock. CSUN's defense held firm, allowing no goals the rest of the way. However, the Matadors were unable to capitalize on a couple of power plays as the match headed into overtime.

In extra time, Lizotte scored her third tally in the final seconds of the first overtime to give her team an 8-7 advantage. CSUN earned another power play with two minutes left in the second overtime but could not hit the equalizer.

Emma Pfister racked up 12 saves in the match while Emma Franck collected three assists.

Marist – 4-1-2-0-1-0 = 8
CSUN – 1-2-3-1-0-0 = 7

Marist Scorers: Lizotte 3, Mathes, Ju. Castro, Jo. Castro, Cantoni, Harris
CSUN Scorers: Andon-Mateos 2, Wilson 2, Jansen, Barthels, Dempsey

Marist Saves: N/A
CSUN Saves: Pfister 12

The Matadors return to action on Wednesday as they travel to Redlands for a pair of non-conference matches. CSUN takes on California Baptist at 2 p.m. before meeting Redlands at 3:30 p.m. to close the day.

No. 21 CSUN Finishes 12th at Triton Invite

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Katia Andon-Mateos

Jennalyn Barthels

Sara Dempsey

Emma Franck

Kylee Jansen

Emma Pfister

Tori Wilson