TEMPE, Ariz. — The La Verne women's water polo team faced the toughest competition it will see this season at Arizona State Invitational, going up against No. 2 Stanford, No. 7 Arizona State and No. 23 Marist in a span of just two days.
Game 1: Marist 10, La Verne 5
The Leopards got off to a good start and led 4-3 at halftime, but couldn't sustain the pressure in the second half as they were outscored 7-1 in the second half.
Depth was the difference as eight different players got on the board for Marist while Guarina Garcia and Stephanie Rosero did all the scoring for the Leopards.
Garcia scored the game's first two goals to get the Leopards out to a 2-0 lead before Marist answered with three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead. Garcia stemmed the tide with her third goal and Rosero got on the board to give the Leopards 4-3 lead at the break.
The Red Foxes then went on a 4-0 run to tatke a 7-4 lead and never looked back.
The Leopards had 11 power play opportunities but only converted two such chances.
Garcia led all players with three goals and Rosero finished with two.
Game 2: Stanford 21, La Verne 3
Stanford, which features three members of the USA Senior National Team that won the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics including the tournament MVP Maggie Steffens, rattled off 14 unanswered goals at one point to beat the Leopards.
Garcia scored two early goals to tie the game at the 4:06 mark in the first quarter but it was all Stanford from there. Jasmine Bustamante ended Stanford's run with a goal in the third quarter but the Cardinal scored five unanswered goals to close the game.
Eight different players scored at least two goals for Stanford.
Game 3: Arizona State 17, La Verne 3
Arizona State started the game on a 4-0 run and scored 13 of the game's first 14 goals to beat the Leopards in the final game of the weekend.
Garcia stopped Arizona State's game-opening run with a goal and Rosero scored two goals in the second half.
Alkistis Benekou tallied a game high seven goals for the Sun Devils and four other players notched two goals apiece.
Up next
The Leopards travel to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to open SCIAC play on Saturday.