ORANGE, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Women's Water Polo team left Orange County with a 22-10 win over Chapman on Wednesday night at the Allred Aquatics Center.
Season Impact: with the win, the Sagehens improve to 8-9 overall and 1-0 in SCIAC play.
The Sagehens had three players who netted hat-tricks as Brienz Lang, Paulina Correa and Lulu Gaither shared a game-high three goals in the win. Abigail Wiesenthal, Kaylee Stigar, Alexandra Szczerba, and Namlhun Jachung had two apiece while Ayva Magna, Madison Lewis, Mia Amberger, Bella McGowan and Lauren Smith had one. Zosia Amberger picked up the win in goal with 15 saves.
Pomona-Pitzer came out firing in their first SCIAC contest of the year with seven goals in the first quarter of play. Lang netted the first goal for the Sagehens with just over a minute gone but the Panthers answered on a powerplay to even the score at 1-1. Pomona-Pitzer proceeded to score five-straight after Gaither, Wiesenthal, Lang, Jachung and Correa found the back of the net to put the Sagehens up 6-1. Chapman ended the goal streak with their second of the quarter with 24 seconds remaining, but the Sagehens ended the first with a goal by Gaither in the final seconds to take a 7-2 advantage heading into the second quarter.
The two teams exchanged goals to open the second after Lang tallied her hat-trick in 8:18 of game time to make it 8-3 Sagehens. Wiesenthal scored again to put the Sagehens up 9-3 early in the second and the Sagehens continued to extend the lead with goals from Szczerba, Stigar, Magna and Amberger to make it 14-3 with 2:11 left before halftime. Chapman got a little offense going before halftime after they ended with the final three goals of the second quarter to cut into the lead a bit with the Sagehens up 14-6 at the break.
Correa scored the first goal of the second half, and after a response from the Panthers, the Sagehens put up back-to-back goals from Jachung and Smith to take a 10-goal lead at 17-7 over Chapman with 4:36 to play in the third. Gaither, McGowan and Correa scored before the end of the third to extend the Sagehens' lead to 20-9 heading into the fourth.
The Sagehens took their feet off of the gas after scoring 20 goals in the first three quarters of the game. The defense held up as they only allowed the Panthers to get one goal in the fourth and Stigar and Lewis ended the game with goals for the Sagehens as Pomona-Pitzer opened SCIAC play with a double-digit win over Chapman.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next return home to host Caltech and Biola on Saturday, March 11th at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
