Thousand Oaks, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Water Polo team defeated Villanova 9-8 and fell to CSU Bakersfield 13-12 in a pair of one-goal matches on the first day of the Posada Royale Invitational, hosted by Cal Lutheran on Saturday.

With the split, the Sagehens are now 7-3 on the season, including 5-1 in one-goal matches after finally dropping their first close out to Bakersfield.

Pomona-Pitzer earned the 9-8 win over Villanova by scoring the first three goals of the third quarter after going into intermission tied 6-6, with junior Alyssa Woodward, senior Brenda Iglesias (pictured) and junior Carter Grant finding the net. The Wildcats scored with one second left in the third stanza to close to within 9-7, but the Sagehens were able to clamp down on defense and hold Villanova to just one fourth quarter goal.

Woodward, Grant and sophomore Megan Snow each had two goals for Pomona-Pitzer, while Iglesias and juniors Sarah Westcott and Chrissie Alving-Trinh each had one.

The nightcap saw the Sagehens fall behind 12-7 in the third quarter and nearly come all the way back before falling 13-12 to Bakersfield. Westcott started a 4-0 run with a goal, with Woodward adding two around a goal from junior Sallie Walecka to make the score 12-11. After Bakersfield answered the run with a goal with 3:21 to go, junior Mahalia Prater-Fahey scored on the next possession to get the lead back down to 13-12, but the Sagehens were unable to find the equalizer.

Westcott finished with four goals in the nightcap, while Woodward had three and five others had one, including freshman Christina Williamson, who scored her first in her first action of the season after competing on the swimming team in the winter.

Pomona-Pitzer concludes play at the Posada Royale Invitational with matches against Azusa Pacific and Sonoma State.