The IU water polo team lost both games it played this weekend at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference tournament in California.
IU entered the MPSF tournament as the No. 7 seed after finishing the regular season of conference play with an 0-6 record.
IU lost to No. 2-seed University of Southern California 19-4 on Friday. USC started the scoring quickly, but IU responded with two of its own goals to take an early 2-1 lead in the match.
Junior attacker Megan Abarta found the back of the net first on an unassisted, power-play goal. Following right behind her was junior driver Emily Powell who also scored after an assist from her teammate, sophomore utility Carlie Crumbaugh.
USC responded after being down early, scoring five more goals in the first quarter to take a 6-2 lead heading in to the second quarter. After seven consecutive goals by USC in the second quarter, IU was able to get on the board again on a pass from freshman left Lauren Etnyre to Abarta. The Hoosiers headed to halftime trailing 14-3.
USC came out on fire in the second half, scoring five more goals before IU sophomore driver Juli Hilovsky scored on an unassisted goal late in the fourth quarter as USC went on to win by 15.
Following its first match against USC, IU lost to No. 6-seed Arizona State University 16-6 on Saturday.
After being bottled up against USC, freshman attacker Tina Doherty didn’t take long to get IU on the board in the match, scoring on a well assisted goal from Emily Powell. But the Hoosiers trailed 3-1 after the first quarter.
The Hoosiers came out in the second quarter and were held to just one goal, again scored by Doherty, sending them into halftime with a 9-2 deficit.
Entering the second half the Hoosiers only allowed three goals in the third quarter but could only find the back of the net once. Doherty netted her third goal of the game to complete the hat trick in her final game of her freshman season.
In the fourth quarter, three different Hoosiers scored, but it wasn’t enough for a comeback as Arizona State won the game by 10.
Next year the Hoosiers return everyone to their lineup after not having a single senior on the roster.
IU will bring in an impressive recruiting class as well that contains eight new faces for the roster. This should help the Hoosiers with depth next season, something that was an issue throughout this year.
The Hoosiers finished their 2018-19 season with a 6-17 regular season record and 0-8 in MPSF conference play.
