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University of Toronto Athletics

Alicia Vas
Seyran Mammadov

Women's Water Polo

BLUES CLOSE OUT CALIFORNIA TOUR AT TINA FINALI TOURNEY

The Varsity Blues women's water polo team completed its 13 games in 10 days California NCAA competition tour with three losses.
 
The first loss came against Concordia University at the Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine, while the final two came against a pair of Fresno schools at the Tina Finali tournament hosted by Cal Lutheran. 
 
The Blues logged an incredible amount of driving hours to get all the games in on the tour, a significant factor that contributed to the players fatigue. 

"We will be changing our schedule of games next year to decrease the fatigue factor on the players," stated head coach George Gross, Jr. "Obviously, missing four starters hurt our ability to be competitive but the real issue was the unforeseen extra workload that the next seven players were forced to take on.  The players all believe the experience was still extremely beneficial and are already talking about how they will  improve the team's performance."
 
CONCORDIA  7   BLUES  2
 
The Blues never got untracked, falling behind 3-0 before the game was three minutes old.  The Blues could not muster any kind of a shooting game, including missing a penalty shot that would have brought the score to 4-2 in the second quarter and possibly inspired the team to play through the exhaustion.
 
Junior star goalie Rachael Jaffe blocked two of three penalty shots she faced and also robbed a pair of Eagles players on breakaways.  The Blues markers came from sophomore Caitlyn Tiedje (Okotoks, Alberta) and freshman Allie Vas (Yorba Linda, California). 
  
FRESNO PACIFIC  10  BLUES  6
 
The Blues opened the Tina Finali tournament at Cal Lutheran by again getting off to a sluggish start and quickly fell behind 2-0 in the first quarter.  The Sunbirds extended the lead before the Blues got on the board.  Four unanswered goals in the second quarter by Fresno Pacific sealed the fate of the Blues squad, which tried to mount a comeback with three goals in the fourth quarter.
 
The specialty teams again did the Blues in as Toronto went a dismal 1-for-7 on the power play, while giving up four goals in seven chances playing a man down.
 
Vas led the Blues with a hat trick while fellow freshmen Deena Charles (Langley, B.C.), Katie Smith (Chestermere, Alberta) and Sarah Wentling (Mohnton, Pennsylvania) added singles.
 
#15 FRESNO STATE  16   BLUES  5
 
Toronto completed its arduous California competition tour by having to face the highest ranked team it would face in the #15 Bulldogs of Fresno State.  Under the tutelage of two-time Olympic medalist Natalie Golda Benson, the Bulldogs have gone from not having a program three years ago to being ranked in the NCAA's top twenty.
 
The Blues were simply over-matched by the Bulldogs starters, who ran away to a 8-0 first quarter lead before Benson elected to give her second and third units the rest of the game to get playing time in.  With the Fresno State starters on the bench, the final three quarters were competitive as the Blues lost each quarter by only one goal (2-3, 2-3, 1-2).
 
Wentling paced the Blues with a pair of goals.  Junior Rhianna Wood (Calgary), Tiedje and Vas completed the scoring.
 
The Blues now get three days off to recover before traveling to Boston this coming weekend to participate in the Harvard Invitational and conclude their season.

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