Whittier, Calif. - The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team held off a rally from Whittier to capture a 7-6 win on Wednesday in a key SCIAC matchup. 

The Sagehens improve to 17-13 on the season and 3-1 in the SCIAC with the win, while Whittier falls to 19-14 overall and suffers its first SCIAC defeat, falling to 4-1 in league play. 

Pomona-Pitzer used a second half run to turn a 3-3 tie into a 7-4 lead and then held on after Whittier scored two late goals to cut it to 7-6. Alyssa Woodward (pictured) started the spurt with back to back goals to put the Sagehens ahead 5-3 at the end of the third quarter. Whittier scored the first goal of the fourth, but Vicky Gyorffy answered and Mahalia Prater-Fahey added her second with 2:50 to play to give her team a three-goal lead.

Whittier scored goals on its next two possessions to come within a single goal with 1:05 on the clock, but the Sagehens were able to withstand one final Poet chance to preserve the win.

Pomona-Pitzer's last three SCIAC matches have all been decided by one goal, including a 6-5 loss with one second left to Occidental, and back-to-back 7-6 road wins over Redlands and Whittier.

The win over the Poets was key for the Sagehens' SCIAC Championship hopes, as CMS is now the only remaining unbeaten, with both Pomona-Pitzer and Whittier a game behind with one loss. The SCIAC Champion is determined by a point system that combines the regular season and the SCIAC Tournament, and any team within two games of first place controls its own destiny for the league title. 

The Sagehens return to action on Saturday to face Caltech at home at Haldeman Pool, beginning at 11 a.m.