SAN DIEGO, Calif.- The Saint Francis water polo team (7-15) won a climatic clash with Fresno Pacific 10-9 in overtime and fell 17-4 to No. 17 Long Beach State to wrap up both the Aztec Invitational and the California road trip. 

Fresno Pacific Recap

• The Red Flash scored first courtesy of Erin O'Neill's (Landsdale, Pa/North Penn) strike.
• FPU tied it up but Breanna Dupperon (Regina, Canada/Campbell Collegiate) scored the first of her fourth goals to take a 2-1 lead.
• Despite another Dupperon goal, the score was 3-3 at the end of the first period foreshadowing the close game to come.
• Dupperon earned the hat trick in the second period but the Sunbirds, like the mythical Phoenix, arose to retie the game.
• SFU kept pace with FPU thanks to goals by Caroline Gillespie (Lansdale, Pa./North Penn High School) and Metztli Enriquez (Atwater, CA/El Capitan) to force a 6-6 halftime score. 
• O'Neill scored the only goal of the third period to give Saint Francis a 7-6 advantage.
• Dupperon's fourth goal of the game gave the Red Flash a 8-7 advantage.
• FPU forced overtime by tying the game at 8-8. Neither team could find the regulation time solution.
• In the first overtime period, FPU scored first but senior Ani Aghakhanian (La Crescenta, Calif/La Valley College), clutch as always, tied up before the period expired.
• Enriquez picked the most opportune time to score her second goal of the game as she pounded home the game winning goal with 20 seconds left. 
• The Sunbirds had one last rise left but Kate Wilke (Burbank, Calif./Burroughs) stole the ball away to deny the opportunity for sudden death. 

Long Beach State Recap

• Aghakhanian tied up the game at 1-1 but the rest of the first period was all Long Beach State as the 49ers were up 5-1 after the first period.
• LBST was up 11-1 before Gillespie got the Red Flash back on the board with a sizzling strike.
• Dupperon added a goal to narrow the margin even more. 
• Julia Bradford (Edinboro, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) scored the final goal of the game for SFU to make the score 11-4.
• The 49ers put pat to any chance of a comeback by scoring six straight goals. LBST totaled a remarkable 12 goals in the second period. 
• The third and fourth period witnessed no scoring by either team and the halftime score of 17-4 was the final score of 17-4.

Notes

• Breanna Dupperon (Regina, Canada/Campbell Collegiate) had a career high four goals against Fresno Pacific. 
• The Red Flash were 14-43 shooting.

Up Next

The Red Flash finally return home to cozy Stokes Natarioum for two home matches against Mercyhurst and Gannon. Mercyhurst will be at noon and Gannon will be at 6 pm.