CLAREMONT, CA. – The No. 18 Pomona-Pitzer Water Polo team took two wins in their Wednesday double header with a 17-11 win over non-conference opponent Concordia and a 16-11 win over SCIAC opponent Occidental at Haldeman Pool.
Season Impact: with the wins, The Sagehens improve to 22-8 overall and stay perfect at 13-0 in SCIAC play. With this win, the Sagehens have now clinched the Regular Season SCIAC Championship and will hold the No. 1 seed in the upcoming SCIAC Postseason Tournament.
Pomona-Pitzer 17, Concordia 11
The Sagehens were led by Keegan Coleman, Benjamin Sasaki and Sam Sasaki who all shared a team-high with three goals in the win. Jack Mallery also had multiple goals with two and Jacob Cohn, Dylan Elliott, Noah Sasaki, Matija Jancic, Adam Gross and Jack Ryan all chipped in with one.
The Sagehens jumped out to a three-goal lead early on in the game with opening goals from Gross, Mallery and Coleman, but the Eagles came back and scored three-straight of their own to tie the game at 3-3. Both teams added one more at the end of the first quarter as the Eagles and Sagehens ended the first tied at 4-4.
CUI started out the second with the lead after scoring on their opening possession but goals from Elliott and Coleman put the Sagehens back on top 6-5. The Eagles tied the game at 6-6 to keep it close but the Sagehens then added the final two goals of the half from Ben Sasaki and Mallery to take an 8-6 lead into halftime.
While Concordia did a good job keeping it close in the first half, the Sagehens broke the game open in the third as they outscored the Eagles 8-3 in the third. Coleman, Sasaki, Cohn, Jancic, and Ryan got the Sagehens going with a 14-7 lead and then Noah Sasaski and Ben Sasaki added two more as the Sagehens took a commanding 16-9 lead into the fourth.
Concordia outscored the Sagehens 2-1 in the fourth, but it was smooth sailing for the Sagehens in the fourth as they took care of Concordia in game one of their double header
Pomona-Pitzer 16, Occidental 11
The Sagehens were led by Elliott who scored a whopping nine goals and had 10 points in the win. Coleman and Sam Sasaki also contributed two goals each while Ban Sasaki, Noah Sasaki, and Gross each added one.
Elliott set a single-game record for the Sagehens with nine goals and reached a career milestone with 200 career goals.
Oxy and Pomona-Pitzer alternated goals to open the first as Gross and Elliott notched goals to make the game 2-2. Elliott scored the final goal of the first quarter to give the Sagehens a 3-2 lead.
Elliott notched the first two goals for the Sagehens to start the second quarter before Noah Sasaki scored his first goal of the night to push the lead to 6-3. The Tigers came back and chipped away at the lead to bring the game closer to 6-5, but Elliott ended the quarter again with a goal and gave the Sagehens a 7-5 lead heading into halftime.
The Tigers kept it close in the first half, but the Sagehens took over in the third after outscoring Occidental 5-2 in the third. Coleman, Sam Sasaki and Elliott score three of the first four goals of the second half to extend the lead to 10-5 before Oxy broke the goal streak to cut the lead down to 10-6. Coleman and Ben Sasaki netted goals to end the third and the Sagehens took a 12-6 lead heading into the fourth.
Elliott wasn't done scoring as he notched three of the four goals in the fourth for the Sagehens as they took care of Occidental and kept their unbeaten streak in the SCIAC alive.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next host their last regular season game of the year as they play Whittier on Saturday, November 13th at 7:00 p.m.
