No. 4 Cal Falls To No. 5 Arizona State In Opening Round of MPSF Tournament

TEMPE, Arizona – Junior Kitty Lynn Joustra recorded her third consecutive hat trick but the No. 4 Cal women’s water polo team fell to No. 5 Arizona State 12-8 on Friday in the first round of the MPSF Championships.

Senior Brigit Mulder and freshman Maryn Dempsey each added two goals for the Bears (11-7), who will play in the Fifth Place Game against either Indiana or San Jose State on Sunday.

Cal, which defeated the Sun Devils twice during the regular season, fell behind 3-0 and could only creep to within one goal once at 4-3. Arizona St. scored five straight goals to lead 9-3 after the first possession of the third period.

Back-to-back goals by Mulder and junior Elli Protopapas trimmed the Sun Devils’ advantage to 9-5 late in the third quarter, but ASU answered with two of the next three scores to lead 11-6 with 4:37 to play.

The Bears outshot Arizona State 36-38 but went 0-for-8 on the power play and were victimized by hot goalkeeping by the Sun Devils’ Chelsea Karimazando, who made 19 saves – the most in the MPSF this season.

Joustra added two steals for Cal and has scored multiple goals in five of the past six games.