CLAREMONT, CA: After two tough Friday losses, Pomona-Pitzer flipped the script on Saturday to finish 2-2 at the Gary Troyer Memorial Tournament.
The first game of the tournament saw the Sagehens square off against the Sunbirds of Fresno Pacific University. While Pomona-Pitzer would score eight second-half goals, a 7-2 halftime deficit and a 3-1 Sunbird run over the game's last 3 minutes were too much to overcome as the Hens would drop the game 13-10. Juniors Nic Lanker and James Baker as well as Freshman Adam Ward led the way for the Sagehen offense tallying two goals each while Sophomore Daniel Diemer had a big game in the cage with 18 saves.
Friday's nightcap saw Pomona-Pitzer and MIT go down to the wire before a buzzer-beating tip-in gave the Engineers an 8-7 victory at Haldeman Pool. A tight, defensive 3-3 game through the first 16 minutes, MIT would use four goals including two inside the last 1:10 of the third quarter to take a 7-5 lead entering the final period. Goals by Ward and Junior Tommy Turner would make it a tie ballgame with 4:17 remaining but the Engineers would ultimately prevail off of a tip-in with one second remaining to take the game 8-7. Diemer would follow up his 18-save performance with 9 more against MIT while Senior Phillip Clayman and Junior Timmy Hardman accounted for four of the Sagehens' seven goals with two apiece.
"I thought this morning we came out flat but did a much better job of competing this evening" said interim head coach Alex La on Friday's games. "We just needed to finish better in both games and do a better job of putting shots away. In one sense I'm happy the guys showed the resiliency to battle back in both games but we need to have renewed focus tomorrow and not let matches like these slip away."
A new day and two new opponents boded well for Pomona-Pitzer as Saturday saw two big offensive outbursts help the Sagehens close out the Gary Troyer tournament at an even .500. Pomona-Pitzer wasted no time getting ahead in Saturday's matinee action against George Washington as the Hens would end the first half with an 8-3 lead courtesy of a 4-1 run over the last 4:30 of the second quarter. The last 16 minutes saw the Sagehens race past the Colonials with a 7-2 run to end ahead 15-5, their biggest margin of victory this season. Clayman paced the offense with five goals while Lanker and Ward would combine for seven (4/3) to contribute to the offensive surge. The stingy Sagehen defense lead by Diemer's nine saves played a huge role in the win as they limited the Colonials to their lowest offensive output of the season.
Pomona-Pitzer would keep the offense rolling in the Gary Troyer finale as eight first-half goals would give the Hens all the ammunition it would need en route to a 14-6 win over Washington & Jefferson. Clayman, Hardman, and Ward would lead the way once again for Sagehens as they combined for six first-half goals and nine overall (three apiece) while Diemer continued his dominant weekend with 13 saves to bring the four game total to 49.
"I thought today was obviously a lot better day with two wins" said La. "This morning's game was the first complete game for us as we starting off strong, played the game well, and finished strong so I thought that was a good step forward. While yesterday we were often having to play from behind, we did a great job of getting ahead early today and working hard on the defensive end to maintain those leads."
The Sagehens will be back in action on Saturday as they will be competing in the Kap7 SoCal Invitational hosted by Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount. They will enter the tournament as the 16th play in the opening game versus #1 UCLA at Pepperdine at 8am. Live coverage of all games as well as the tournament website can be found on the Pepperdine Athletics Website.
