The Varsity Blues women's water polo team reached the halfway point of its 13-games-in-10-days California competition tour by splitting a pair of games at the Bulldog Invitational hosted by Redlands University.
 
#27  CAL STATE EAST BAY  9,   BLUES  8
 
The Blues played their best game of the tour to date in an intense and exciting contest against the #27 ranked Cal State East Bay Pioneers.
 
In the first quarter, the Pioneers twice scored to take early leads but both times the Blues came back down to even the score on their very next possession. The Varsity Blues went ahead 3-2 early in the next period but East Bay answered on a power play to even things up. Then, with a little over a minute left in the second,  the Pioneers scored their second goal in a row to go into halftime with a 4-3 advantage.

The Blues scored the equalizer on a power play early in the third quarter.  The teams then spent much of the quarter tied 4-4 until the Pioneers scored to go ahead 5-4. U of T responded again in the final minute of the period, but then conceded a late goal to allow CSUEB to grab a 6-5 lead heading into the final quarter.

The Varsity Blues appeared to grab the momentum after scoring back-to-back goals in the first minute of the fourth to jump ahead 7-6 before stopping a Pioneers' power play.  But the East Bay defence then shut the door and, three minutes later, a penalty shot was called on the Blues, which the Pioneers converted with three minutes left to tie the score 7-7.

Another Toronto exclusion a minute later gave the Pioneers a power play, and this time they didn't miss the opportunity retaking the lead at 8-7. Two possessions later, East Bay scored again to seal the victory despite a late Toronto goal.  
 
Junior center forward Caitlyn Tiedje (Okotoks, Alberta) had a great game scoring four times and earning three exclusions.  Fellow junior Rhianna Wood (Calgary), sophomore Amber Masse (San Jose, California) and freshen Allie Vas (Yorba Linda, California) and Deena Charles (Langley, B.C.) each scored once.
 
The best player in the pool was Blues goalie junior Rachael Jaffe (Irvine, California) who had a monster game in the net.  Jaffe made 12 saves (including stopping three breakaways) and had four steals to enable the Blues to stay in the game.
 
The result was a remarkable turnaround for U of T as the teams played each other a year ago with the Pioneers trouncing the Blues by a 10-goal margin.
 
BLUES  5,   REDLANDS  4
 
Only two hours after the finish of the Cal State East Bay game, the Blues were back in the pool to face the host Redlands University Bulldogs, Toronto's second Division 3 opponent of the tour.
 
It was the second game of the day for both teams although the Blues had three hours less rest between games.  Both teams were sluggish and did not show a lot of offensive firepower as the teams' defenses stymied the offences.
 
The game was also impacted by a torrential downpour and high winds during the second and third quarters (see photo) plus drizzle in the other periods which made visibility poor and shooting, passing and catching the ball difficult.
 
Nevertheless, the teams made it an exciting game as neither team ever led by more than a goal and much of the game was spent tied.
 
Neither team scored in the opening 10 minutes of a defensive stalemate.  The Bulldogs opened the scoring with 5:14 to play in the second quarter.  However, the Varsity Blues answered with two goals over the next three minutes to head into the halftime break with a slight 2-1 advantage.

Redlands then equalized about two-and-a-half minutes into the third for the only score of the quarter. 

Now tied at two with eight minutes to go, the teams stepped up their offence and produced five goals to exceed the previous three periods combined.  Just over a minute into the final quarter, the Blues scored at even strength to take a 3-2 lead only to see Redlands respond in kind a minute later to restore the tie.  The teams then traded power play goals in the middle of the period as the Blues again scored to take the lead only to see the Bulldogs come right back to even things up.

Then, with a little over a minute to play, the Blues went on the power play and converted the opportunity to nudge ahead 5-4.  On the ensuing attack, the Toronto defense was forced to shut down the Bulldogs power play, which it did.  With 30 seconds to go, the Blues went on the power play and only had to hold on to the ball and run out the clock.  But an errand pass struck the side lane rope and trickled out of bounds setting up a wild finish as Redlands used its last time out to set up a play with seven seconds to play.  The Blues pressed well and made a blindside steal to preserve the victory.

The Blues made life difficult for themselves by only going 2-of-14 with the man advantage.  On the flip side, the Blues managed to kill off 9-of-10 Bulldog power plays.  Toronto won three of four of the opening sprints.

Vas led all scorers with a pair of goals including the game winner while freshmen Katie Smith (Chestermere, Alberta) and Sara Sutherland (Regina) along with Tiedje added singles.  Jaffe had another strong game in net for the Blues with 10 saves and five steals.

After a day off today to recover from the first six games, the Blues will travel to Thousand Oaks to face off against #21 Cal State Northridge and host Cal Lutheran University as part of a one day three-way tournament.