Claremont, Calif. – The third-seeded Whittier Women's Water Polo team jumped out to a 4-1 lead after the first quarter and held it the rest of the way as it knocked off top-seeded Pomona-Pitzer 7-6 in the finals of the 2015 SCIAC Championship Tournament on Sunday afternoon at Haldeman Pool.

With the win, Whittier improves its record to 9-2 in conference matches and will represent the SCIAC in an NCAA Play-In Game next weekend. Pomona-Pitzer, which came in undefeated in the SCIAC, falls to 10-1 and sees its 10-match winning streak snapped.

The two teams will officially be SCIAC Co-Champions, due to the conference system of combining regular season and tournament results. Pomona-Pitzer came into the tournament with eight points (8-0) and Whittier had six (6-2). The Poets received 10 points for winning the tournament, and the Sagehens earned eight for the runner-up finish, giving both teams 16. The tiebreaker for representing the SCIAC in NCAA Tournament play is the higher tournament finish, which the Poets earned with their win in Sunday's finals.

Isabella Gorrocino had the key stretch of the game early on, as she scored twice in the final minute of the first quarter to put the Poets ahead 4-1, after Alyssa Woodward scored for the Sagehens at the 1:16 mark to cut the deficit to 2-1. Zyania Morales and Cynthia Castillo scored in the opening four minutes to stake Whittier to an early 2-0 lead.

The second quarter saw Pomona-Pitzer's Morgan McCracken score twice, but was answered each time by Castillo, who finished off her hat trick at the 1:19 mark to give the Poets a 6-3 lead at the break. A quick exchange of goals midway through the third saw Mahalia Prater-Fahey score for the Sagehens at the 4:06 mark, Morales answering 16 seconds later, and Sallie Walecka converting for Pomona-Pitzer 18 seconds after that to make the Whittier lead 7-5 with 3:32 left in the third.

The Poets would not score again, but Pomona-Pitzer was unable to get any closer than 7-5 until Woodward scored on a five meter penalty shot with just  1:26 to go. The Sagehens earned steals twice on the next two possessions, the second with just 10 seconds left, but Whittier answered back with steals of their own both times, the last coming on an attempted dump-in pass with one second left to seal it.

Caitlin Bronzan finished with eight saves for Whittier, including a key one from in close on a Pomona-Pitzer transition attempt with just under four minutes remaining. Ahsha Earwood had eight for the Sagehens in a losing cause.

In other action on the day, Chapman edged CMS in a wild 10-9 game where nobody ever led by more than one goal, earning third place on a goal from Riley Ford with 37 seconds left. Ford also gave the Panthers a 9-8 lead with 2:07 left, before Rose Koper tied it for the Athenas in the final minute. CMS hit the crossbar with a last-second effort to tie. Ford finished with four goals for Chapman, while Brittany Arneson and Roxy Kiessling each had three to lead the way for CMS.

La Verne earned a fifth place finish with an 11-6 win over Occidental, breaking the game open after it was tied 2-2 after the first quarter. Maddie Lovrensky had a hat trick for the Leopards, while Lizzy Kosin had two goals for Occidental.  Hailey Westwood finished with 12 saves for La Verne in goal.

Cal Lutheran started the day off with a 16-10 win over Redlands behind the one-two punch of Jordan Card (seven goals) and Amanda Jones (five goals). The Bulldogs led 6-3 at the half, but Cal Lutheran scored 13 times in the second half (seven in the third and six in the fourth). Card had six goals in the second half alone, including two in a 3-0 run that turned an 8-8 tie late in the third into an 11-8 lead early in the fourth. Gina Merry had 10 saves for Cal Lutheran in the win as well.

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