CLAREMONT, Ca. – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team came away with two big wins as they defeated Whittier 12-6 and won the home leg of the Sixth Street Rivalry with an 11-8 win over CMS on Saturday afternoon at Haldeman Pool.
Season Impact: with the wins, the Sagehens improve to 10-14 overall and 4-0 in SCIAC play.
Pomona-Pitzer 12, Whittier 6
The Sagehens were led by Namlhun Jachung who was the sole player to net a hat-trick in the win. Allison Sullivan Wu, Nadia Paquin, and Madison Lewis all contributed multi-goal games as well with two while Katherine Cullen, Lucie Abele, and Alexandra Szczerba each had one. May Lin got the win in goal for the Sagehens against the Poets with four saves.
Lewis and Paquin got the Sagehens on the board early in the first as Pomona-Pitzer established a 2-0 lead over Whitter before the Poets netted their first goal of the game to make it 2-1 with just over five minutes left in the first. The Sagehens had their best scoring quarter in the first with four goals as Lewis and Jachung added goals as well with the Sagehens leading the Poets 4-2 after one quarter of play.
The Sagehen defense played a big part in extending the lead in the first half as they shutout the Poets in the second quarter while Abele and Jachung added goals to give the Sagehens a 6-2 lead at halftime.
With the Sagehens leading by four goals at halftime, Pomona-Pitzer came out in the third quarter and extended their lead to 8-2 after goals from Paquin and Cullen. Whittier cut into the lead with back-to-back goals, but the Sagehens added one goal late in the third by Sullivan Wu to take a 9-4 lead into the fourth.
Whittier was able to get the lead down to four goals in the fourth, but the Sagehens continued to find the back of the net as Sullivan Wu, Jachung and Szczerba added goals in the fourth to seal the win for the Sagehens over the Poets.
Pomona-Pitzer 11, CMS 8
The Sagehens were led by Szczerba who netted a hat-trick with three goals in the win. Sullivan Wu, Lewis, and Abele all had two goals while Abigail Wiesenthal and Paquin chipped in with one. Zosia Amberger got the win in game two against the Athenas as she came away with two saves in the cage.
Pomona-Pitzer had the offense working early in the Sixth Street Rivalry as they opened up the game with the first four goals in the first with two from Abele and goals from Paquin and Szczerba to take a 4-0 lead with 2:06 to play in the first quarter. CMS added one goal in the first before the buzzer, but the Sagehens held a 4-1 lead after one period of play.
The Sagehens kept the offense going in the second with Sullivan Wu and Lewis extending the lead to 6-1 and after a CMS goal, the Sagehens struck again with Szczerba getting her second of the game to put the Sagehens on top 7-2. The Athenas again scored late in the quarter but had a lot of ground to make up with the Sagehens on top 7-3 at halftime.
The second half started with a goal from the Sagehens from as Lewis made it 8-3 as the Athenas and Sagehens alternated goals in the third to make it 10-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
CMS started to make a comeback in the fourth as they opened the final quarter with back-to-back goals to cut the lead down to 10-7, but a goal by Sullivan Wu halted the comeback attempt as the Sagehens held on to win the Sixth Street Rivalry 11-8.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next host Caltech on Sunday, March 13th at 11:00 a.m.
