Thousand Oaks, Calif. - Sophomore Chrissie Alving-Trinh (Clovis, Calif. - pictured) had two goals in a decisive 4-0 third quarter as the Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team took an 8-5 win over Occidental on Saturday at the Posada Royale Invitational hosted by Cal Lutheran.

With the win, the Sagehens improve to 3-4 overall on the year, a day after suffering their first loss to a SCIAC opponent since 2011 in a 9-8 defeat to host Cal Lutheran (both the Cal Lutheran and Occidental matches were non-league games). Pomona-Pitzer fell to 3-5 when it closed out the day with a 10-9 loss to Vilanova.

The first half was sluggish as neither team was able to generate much offense, with Occidental taking a 2-1 lead into the halftime break. However, sophomore Alyssa Woodward (Riverside, Calif.) was able to knot the game up with 4:52 left in the third, and Alving-Trinh gave the Sagehens the lead for good with 3:01 left in the stanza.

The final minute of the third quarter proved to be crucial, as sophomore Mahalia Prater-Fahey scored with 33 seconds left, and Pomona-Pitzer was able to force a turnover before Alving-Trinh scored again with 13 seconds on the clock to push the lead to 5-2.

Three times Occidental closed to within two goals in the fourth quarter, but all three times the Sagehens answered as they were able to hold on for the 8-5 win. Freshman Katy Schafer scored 38 seconds after the Tigers cut it to 5-3 (her second goal of the game), Prater-Fahey scored 14 seconds after Occidental made it 6-4, and after Occidental made the score 7-5 with 4:26 left, the Sagehens killed clock before sophomore Vicky Gyorffy (Sacramento, Calif.) wrapped up the win with 40 seconds left.

In the second match of the day, Villanova closed out on a 4-0 run to take a 10-9 win. After Woodward scored to make it 9-6 with 51 seconds left in the third, the Wildcats scored 28 seconds later to make it 9-7 and then added three in the fourth, netting the winning goal with 1:01 left. Gyroffy led the Sagehens with three goals, while Woodward and Schafer had two apiece.

Pomona-Pitzer will next be in action when it hosts the Claremont Convergence next weekend on Friday and Saturday at Haldeman Pool.