Claremont, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team scored the first six goals of the fourth quarter to complete a rally from a four-goal deficit and capture an 11-8 win over CSU Monterey Bay in its second of two games on Friday at its annual Convergence Tournament.
The Sagehens also fell 16-6 in their first game of the day to No. 12 Long Beach State. With the split, Pomona-Pitzer is now 9-5 on the year.
CSU Monterey Bay held a 6-2 lead late in the first half, before freshman Hope Grant scored in the final minute of the second quarter to give the Sagehens a little bit of momentum going into halftime. Junior Alyssa Woodward scored on a five-meter early in the third quarter, and junior Chrissie Alving-Trinh found the net from in close to make the score 6-5 with 4:00 left in the third, but Kara Orr tallied a goal for the Otters to make it 7-5 heading into the fourth.
It was all Sagehens from there, though, as junior Sarah Westcott scored back-to-back goals to tie the game up with 5:21 left. Junior Vicky Gyorffy (pictured) then came up with a steal and fed junior Carter Grant for the go-ahead goal at the 4:56 mark. After Pomona-Pitzer forced another turnover, sophomore Megan Snow scored with 4:24 left, and then Gyorffy fed junior Mahalia Prater-Fahey in close to push the lead to 10-7 with 3:46 left.
Freshman goalie Ahsha Earwood made one of her nine saves lunging to her right, and after a change of possession, she threw a long outlet to Gyorffy for another Pomona-Pitzer goal to make the score 11-7, capping off the 6-0 run with 2:48 to go. Cami Kellogg scored with 34 seconds left to end the 6-0 spurt, but it was too little too late.
Gyorffy, Woodward and Westcott each had two goals for the Sagehens, while Gyorffy also added two assists in the pivotal fourth-quarter run.
In the first game of the day, Coriann Snyder and Rachel Cretcher each had four goals for Long Beach State, which jumped out to a 10-3 halftime lead after Hope Grant scored to pull Pomona-Pitzer within 3-2 early. Grant and Woodward finished with two goals apiece, while Earwood had eight saves.
Pomona-Pitzer will be back in action tomorrow on the second day of the Convergence Tournament, taking on UC Irvine at 11:40 a.m. and UC San Diego at 5 p.m.
