Thousand Oaks, Calif. – Senior Annie Oxborough-Yankus (Wallingford, Conn.) started fourth quarter comebacks with tying goals in both contests, as the Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team won twice at the Cal Lutheran Posada Royale Invitational on Friday, defeating Concordia (Irvine) 7-6 and Azusa Pacific 7-5.
With the wins, the Sagehens improve to an even 5-5 on the year, including 5-1 since returning from its season-opening tournament at Cal-Berkeley.
In Pomona-Pitzer's first game of the day, the Sagehens fell behind Concordia (Irvine) 5-4 early in the fourth quarter before rallying with three straight goals to win the game. Oxborough-Yankus tied the score with her second goal of the game with 4:31 to play, and just over one minute later, senior Perri Hopkins gave Pomona-Pitzer the lead for good with 3;23 remaining.
In the final minute, Chrissie Alving-Trinh scored to give the Sagehens an insurance goal with 50 seconds left to make the score 7-5. That goal would prove to be crucial, as Concordia scored with just 23 seconds left to cut the lead to 7-6, but Pomona-Pitzer was able to kill off the clock and secure the win.
Sarah Westcott and Kerstin Henshall also had goals for the Sagehens in the Concordia contest, while Sarah Tuggy had four saves in goal. Jaime Clark led all goal-scorers with three for Concordia.
The second game of the day against Azusa Pacific was almost a carbon copy of the first, as the Sagehens trailed 5-4 midway through the fourth quarter. After earning possession, Pomona-Pitzer called timeout, and Oxborough-Yankus was able to come up with her second clutch tying goal of the day.
Once the game was tied, Pomona-Pitzer took control behind freshman Alyssa Woodward, who broke the tie on a five-meter shot, and then added an insurance goal moments later to make the score 7-5. Rachel Noll earned the win in goal, as she stopped a five-meter shot with the score still 5-4.
Oxborough-Yankus and Woodward each had three goals for the Sagehens in the win, while Hopkins added the other.
The Sagehens will conclude play at the Posada Royale Invitational tomorrow with games against St. Francis (N.Y.) and Cal State Monterey Bay
