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UH freshman Paula Chillida Esforzado scored four goals against USC on Saturday.
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Top-ranked USC started fast and held off fourth-ranked Hawaii 16-9 on Saturday in an NCAA women’s water polo semifinal at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool, in Cambridge, Mass.
The Trojans led 6-1 after the opening quarter as they defeated the Rainbow Wahine for the third time in an NCAA semifinal. USC meets second-ranked Stanford in today’s championship match, while UH (22-10) plays third-ranked UCLA for third at 9:30 a.m. The Wahine have never finished higher than fourth in seven previous national appearances.
The Cardinal beat the Bruins — coached by Hawaii Olympian Brandon Brooks — 5-3 in Saturday’s other semifinal.
The Wahine had won nine straight heading into the semifinal, including a double-overtime victory in the Big West final that gave them their first conference championship. They scored the first goal against USC on Saturday — sophomore Zoe Respondek hitting 22 seconds into the match — but the Trojans (26-1) responded with seven straight and never looked back.
"We had a really terrible first quarter," UH coach Maureen Cole said. "They outscored us 6-1 and that was pretty much the difference in the game.
"Everything happened a little quicker than we’ve been used to the last couple weeks and we were just not ready from the get-go. It took us eight minutes to get adjusted. From there, we did an OK job."
Freshman Paula Chillida Esforzado again led UH with four goals for her ninth hat trick of the year. Caity Lopes da Silva added two after scoring a career-high four in UH’s quarterfinal win over UC San Diego. Jayde Appel scored three for USC, which got multiple goals from six players.
The 16 goals was the second-highest output by a UH opponent this year and one more than USC scored in a 15-7 win over UH in the teams’ regular-season meeting in Honolulu in March. Senior All-American Monika Eggens, UH’s career scoring leader, was held to one goal. She did move within one of tying the school single-season scoring mark (98).
UCLA is 27-7, with six of the losses coming against USC and Stanford, who have a combined five 2012 Olympians.