IRVINE, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team fell to No. 9 Michigan 14-8 and No. 16 UC San Diego 11-8 on their second day of the Barbara Kalbus Tournament.
Season Impact: with the losses, the Sagehens fall to 4-7 overall.
Pomona-Pitzer 8, Michigan 14
The Sagehens were led by Mia Amberger who scored a hat-trick with three goals in the loss. Abigail Wiesenthal and Brienz Lang each netted two while Lauren Smith scored one.
Michigan jumped out to a 2-0 lead to start the game before Smith scored the Sagehens' first goal of the game to cut the lead down to one goal at 2-1. Michigan responded with a goal and Pomona-Pitzer ended the first with a goal from Amberger to trail the Wolverines by one goal at 3-2 heading into the second.
The second quarter is where Michigan started to pull away after they outscored the Sagehens 4-0 to go into halftime with a 7-2 lead. Lang netted the first goal for the Sagehens out of halftime while Wiesenthal followed to cut the lead down to 7-4. Michigan answered with two-straight goals, but the Sagehens netted two of the final three goals of the third from Amberger and Lang to keep the Sagehens in it at 11-6 heading into the fourth.
The Sagehens opened up the fourth with Wiesenthal finding the back of the net to make it 11-7, but the Wolverines responded with three-straight goals to put the game out of reach at 14-7 with 1:20 remaining.
Pomona-Pitzer 8, UC San Diego 11
The Sagehens were led by Amberger who netted her second hat-trick of the day with three in the loss. Numlhun Jachung was the only other Sagehen with multiple goals with two while Wiesenthal, Stigar and Lang had one.
Pomona-Pitzer matched UC San Diego to start with Jachung netting the first goal for the Sagehens to make it 1-1. The Tritons went on to score back-to-back goals before Amberger scored her first of the game just before the end of the first quarter to make it 4-2.
The Tritons opened the second quarter with a goal followed by an answer from Wisenthal and then Stigar to make it a one-goal game, but UCSD responded with two of their own to push the lead back up to 7-4. Jachung earned her second goal with under a minute to play before halftime with the Sagehens trailing 7-5 at the break.
Lang got the Sagehens to one goal back again right out of halftime, but the Tritons wouldn't let the Sagehens get even after they scored three in a row to extend their lead to 10-6. Amberger scored two-straight goals in the fourth to bring the Sagehens back to 10-8 with 3:53 to go but the Tritons held on to their lead late in the fourth and held the Sagehens off for the win.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next face No. 11 Indiana on Sunday at 9:00 a.m.
