Whittier, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team scored five straight goals, four in the fourth quarter, to break open a defensive struggle and capture a 7-4 win over CMS in the SCIAC Championship match on Sunday at Whittier College.
The win marks the third year in a row that the Sagehens have won the SCIAC Championship, and sixth in the last eight years. Pomona-Pitzer also improves to 23-13 overall and 10-1 against SCIAC teams this season. CMS came into the contest tied with the Sagehens at 9-1 in league contests, but settle for a runner-up finish with both losses coming to Pomona-Pitzer.
The score was tied 3-3 going into the fourth quarter, when the Sagehens had four different players score goals to break the game open and take a commanding 7-3 lead. Junior Mahalia Prater-Fahey gave Pomona-Pitzer the lead for good at the 7:07 mark of the fourth quarter with a blind backhand shot on roughly the same shot from the same place in the same pool that she scored in sudden death overtime to win the SCIAC Championship as a freshman two years ago against Redlands.
Chrissie Alving-Trinh, who tied the score in the third quarter to start the pivotal 5-0 run, then gave the Sagehens an insurance goal when she lobbed in a shot from a near-impossible angle along the right edge of the pool with 5:31 to go. Freshman Christina Williamson then scored her second goal of the game on an end-to-end rush, stealing the ball and sprinting up the left sideline before findhing the net with 3:44 on the clock.
Junior Alyssa Woodward capped off the run when she converted in front of the net on a rebound after CMS goalie Allison Hu made the initial save. CMS scored the final goal of the contest with 30 seconds left to make the final score 7-4, but it was too little, too late as the Sagehens were able to run out the clock on the final possession, with the team's lone senior, Brenda Iglesias, in control of the ball as time expired.
Hu kept CMS in the game early with seven saves in the first quarter, including a breakaway on Pomona-Pitzer's first possession. The Athenas led 1-0 after one quarter, before Williamson finally broke the ice for the Sagehens early in the second quarter. Candace Filippelli scored the first of her goals to make it 2-1 midway through the second quarter, but Prater-Fahey answered right back in transition off a quick feed from Woodward to tie the score 2-2 going into the half.
Filippelli put the Athenas in front again in the third, but Sallie Walecka came up big in net for the Sagehens to stop her going for a hat trick in close which would have made the score 4-2, one of her seven saves on the day.
Pomona-Pitzer will advance to an NCAA Play-In Game, with the winner of that contest moving on to compete in the eight-team NCAA Tournament. The date and time of the play-in matches are to be announced.
