Water Polo Secures Spot in Big West Title Game with Win Over UC San Diego

IRVINE, Calif. — Bernadette Doyle’s career day powered top-seeded Hawai’i to an 11-9 win over No. 4 seed UC San Diego in the semifinal round of the Big West Women’s Water Polo Championship on Saturday at the Anteater Aquatics Complex in Irvine, Calif.

UH (20-4) will play for the Big West Championship title in a rematch of last year’s final against Long Beach State, tomorrow at noon Pacific Time (9:00 a.m. Hawai’i Time). The Rainbow Wahine reached 20 wins for the third straight season and 12th time overall and will look to claim back-to-back conference tournament titles for the first time in program history.

Doyle tied her career-high with five goals in her 12th hat trick of the season and set a career best with eight steals. Doyle tied the third highest single-game steals total in program history, matching Karin van Hoff’s eight against UCSD on Feb. 9, 2002, and finished two shy of the school record.

 

Jordan Wedderburn posted her 14th hat trick of the season and second of the tournament and drew seven exclusions. Ema Vernoux added two goals and assisted on another. Daisy Logtens came up with 11 saves and helped seal the win in the final minutes.

UH overcame Caroline Christl’s six-goal performance to defeat UC San Diego (17-13) for a second straight year in the Big West Championship semifinals.

Defense defined the first 16 minutes of the match before UH took a 4-3 lead into halftime.

The teams traded turnovers early in the match and UC San Diego opened the scoring at the 5:50 mark of the first quarter. Camille Radosavljevic and Doyle answered UCSD’s first two goals, but the Tritons also denied two UH penalty shots in the first period and took a 3-2 lead into the second.

UH took advantage of an exclusion on the UCSD goalie and Jordan Wedderburn tied the match with a power-play goal off an assist from Doyle. With time winding down in the final minute of the half, Doyle came up with a steal at the top, outsprinted the UCSD defense, and fired a shot into the net with four seconds left to give UH its first lead of the match.

 

After UCSD tied the match on a penalty shot, Doyle converted on a penalty shot of her own to complete her 22nd career hat trick. Ema Vernoux scored on a power play to give UH a 6-4 margin. Wedderburn countered a UCSD goal with UH’s third power-play goal. Vernoux fired in a long-range shot from the top for her second goal of the period and UH led 8-6 heading to the fourth quarter.

UC San Diego scored twice in the first three minutes of the quarter to tie it up. UH took a timeout and Roni Perlman dropped a pass to Doyle in front of the net for the go-ahead goal. Doyle scored on another penalty shot for her fifth goal of the day and UH reclaimed a two-goal advantage at 10-8. Christl scored her sixth goal to bring the Tritons within one. Wedderburn skipped in a penalty shot and UH led 11-9 with 1:23 left. Logtens came up with two saves in the final moments to protect the lead and the ‘Bows ran out the clock to seal their place in the final.

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